03 Business Proposition
by Kyeian
Summary: -Complete- With round one a knock-out and round two a win, a draw on round three is not the intent. What's one more skeleton from the closet? -This story contains original characters. The third story of "Chance or Circumstance". Mature language/situations
1. Chapter 1

**One**

"So...why did you call me?" Duo asked skeptically, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"I've...been thinking about you," Quatre explained. "I mean, yesterday..."

"I have an idea," Duo muttered happily, taking a drink from his cup. "Let's..._not_ talk about it."

Quatre laughed at that. "What?"

"You're gonna get me all hot and bothered, and what will that get us in the end?" Duo retorted. "I didn't think I'd have to start doing this until like...six months from now..."

"Doing _what?_" Quatre demanded, mildly put out at the words.

"Trying _not_ to just go out and get laid," Duo explained. "I didn't figure you'd...just move right along by yourself..."

"There's an order?" Quatre retorted, amused again. "Personally, I don't care for what you _think_ should be happening right now or in two months."

Duo grinned, taking another bite of his sandwich. "I _like_ my order," he retorted. "It means I know the next time I'm gonna get laid."

"Am I that bad with my hands?" Quatre asked, a little disheartened.

"No, but there's more to it than that," Duo noted. "Come on, Blondie, don't...err, I mean..."

"_Don't_ call me _blondie!_" Quatre nearly shouted the words. "I thought _you_..."

"I know! I'm sorry!" Duo raised his voice to be sure he was heard. "It came out before I could help it..."

"I'm so _sick_ of people calling me blondie," Quatre grumped in aggravation. "Shit...all right. Since you don't wanna talk to..."

"Oh, don't start that," Duo snapped. "It's not that I don't want to talk to you. Have a nice juicy conversation at lunch, the rest of the workday to think about it, then go home and get laid, you know? That's how these things work."

"You're so about sex," Quatre snapped.

"And you're not thinking about gettin' off?" Duo retorted irritably. "Since that's _not_ why you called me?"

Quatre huffed.

Duo took another drink from his pop. "Just...think about what I said, okay?"

"I know," Quatre sighed. "I'm just having a bad day...sorry."

"Now you're making _me_ feel bad," Duo noted.

"I'm going to read you, and probably be pissed at you," Quatre snapped.

Duo laughed wickedly. "You _should_ read me," he suggested. "Let's have that conversation you were talking about, and..."

"Oh haha," Quatre retorted. "You're a jerk. I have some errands to run around town today...I'm taking off from work in a couple minutes."

"Oh? Like what?" Duo was perfectly willing to change topics. It wasn't like he didn't _want_ to talk to the blond.

"Just some crap I've been meaning to do since we got back," Quatre explained. "I don't think it'll take me until everyone's off work, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Oh...okay," Duo was startled at being put off. "Hey, I really didn't mean to call you blondie, you know that, right?"

"I know," Quatre sighed. "I should have complained about it a long time ago...before everyone got used to it. I'm glad you're trying to stop." He sighed. "Anyway, I should get going. I'll see you tonight, huh?"

"All right," Duo agreed, sitting back in his seat. "Let me know if you'll be late for dinner...maybe...maybe me and you could go somewhere...somewhere nice."

"Are you asking me on a date?" Quatre demanded, amusement creeping back into his tone.

"I like spending time with you," Duo retorted. "Why _shouldn't_ I ask you out? Besides, you're the one all butt-hurt..."

"You wish I was butt-hurt," Quatre retorted, grinning as he grabbed up his jacket.

"That's entirely beside the point," Duo grinned wickedly. "Do you wanna go out or not?"

"Yeah," Quatre decided, looking around for his car keys. "Yeah, that should be fun. If I'll be home after you, I'll let you know. I won't bother if I'm there before you get in."

"All right," Duo muttered, grinning slightly as he grabbed the handle to his car door. "I'll talk to you later, then."

"Yeah, later," Quatre agreed, hanging up.

Duo considered the conversation a long moment, then closed his own phone and opened the door.

"_What_ are you doing?"

He jumped hard, redirecting his arm before he could grab the woman by her throat. "Reg!"

She laughed wickedly and ducked out of his reach. "You're all distracted, aren't you? Who was that on the phone?"

Duo popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth and melted out of the car at her. She watched him move, but didn't acknowledge any other hint of attraction she had. She'd told him before that he needed to go home with her, and that they needed a few drinks, but unfortunately he was a co-worker, so she was out of luck...he'd gotten slapped by the end of _that_ conversation, but the woman didn't hold a grudge.

"Well?" she demanded happily. "Who?" she chased his hand as he tried to move the phone out of her reach. She attempted to pull his arm back down, but she didn't have the strength—or the weight—to make it work. It took a long moment before she got exasperated enough to completely drop her legs out.

"I should _so_ drop you," he informed her happily as she dangled from his arm—she was staring at him, but she wasn't falling. "I should make you fall on your..."

"You are _not_ that strong!" she protested, pulling herself higher so her weight was more on the arm.

The thing was...she didn't weigh that much. One-fifty at the _most_...and he was pretty sure that was a stretch.

Duo flashed her a wicked grin and let her drop. She tried to protest that, but before she could gain her own balance, he snatched her up into the air—and held her over his head, arms extended up.

She squealed in dismayed delight, clinging to his wrists with her hands as the various workers looked to them in alarm.

"I'd throw you, but you'd panic," he noted happily...and carefully lowered her down to avoid that. "And what do you mean, strong? You're a frickin' feather...girl," he pushed her gently so she fell against the car, then moved around her to get his drink. "I was talking to Jason," he added, pocketing his phone.

The various construction workers were still watching them when he straightened and closed his door. They looked somewhat suspicious as Reg waited happily for him, but she bounced to stand in front of him and walk backwards.

"Ivan said you had a hard-on the other day enough that you could stand a foot from the wall and get smacked."

Duo choked hard on that and gave her a disbelieving look.

"And they said you've been having these lunch conversations for a while...I just thought I'd see how right they were. You didn't even _see_ me, and I crossed behind your rearview."

Duo grinned at her, then directed Ivan a very level look as they neared the area around the house. The man flushed and turned away quickly.

"So who have you been talking to? It's not _really_ Jason is it? I thought you didn't fantasize about your buddies."

"I don't, usually," Duo shrugged, then stopped and looked everyone over. They were all watching him still, and he didn't feel like the conversation needed an audience. "Is there a _problem?_"

"That's what we were trying to figure out," one of the bigger guys noted with narrow eyes. "Why did you scream, Reg?"

"I didn't scream, I squeaked," she retorted, giving him an offended look. "And did you _see_ how high he picked me up? His arms were _fully_ extended."

The guys all exchanged looks.

"We were playing," Reg put her hands on her hips and looked everyone over skeptically.

"Get back to work," Duo ordered the men in a level tone. "If you have a problem with what I do, we can take it up when we're not on the clock."

The men grumbled about that, at least, the newer ones. A new crew had come in to do a section of the house that he'd been solely in charge of before going to rescue the asshole of a prince. They hadn't been sure what to think of him the day he'd come back to work and started giving orders. His men, the ones he was used to working with, had snapped to, and they'd made up for most of the time the guys had all squandered without someone there to give them dirty looks. The new set hadn't taken very well to him, but they all were rather taken with Reg. The fact that Duo could make her laugh and smile in about two seconds had evidently annoyed a few of them—like the big one.

"Anyway," Duo muttered in a lower voice to the female as he started back for what they all called his podium—it was something of a table made from four wooden boxes that had been emptied, but it was where he worked from most of the time. "Things got a little...uh...complicated...with Jason when we were gone."

"On your second vacation that was a little extended?" she demanded skeptically.

"Or to save a prince in distress," he retorted.

"You mean princess," she countered. "You go out and save a damsel in distress, gay or not. ...And I don't believe that either. You just decided you wanted to go back out to space..."

"Get shot at a few times, fly a MS, rescue the _prince_, and try to screw one of my best friends," he shrugged. "Typical week, really."

"Are you talking about the shit that Relena Darlian was on about?" she asked blankly. "The whole...A0227 or whatever crap?"

Duo stopped and _looked_ at her.

She'd known them since he started working for Victor. She knew they all had assumed names...they'd been _on_ the news. He'd assumed she'd connected it and was just waiting for him to broach the matter to talk about it...did she really not...?

"What?" she asked blankly.

"Do you not know who I am?" he asked blankly, trying to read in her eyes if she was teasing him.

"You're Warrick Temblar," she noted, raising an eyebrow.

"Wow," Duo muttered, leaning against the podium. He relaxed down against it a moment, then looked around. "We need to talk."

"I told you I don't date coworkers," she informed him skeptically.

"I've got a date tonight, poppet," he returned, grinning slightly as he realized it himself. "This is just _not_ the place to have this conversation."

She raised an eyebrow at him, then shrugged. "Okay, whatever you say."

"Good girl," he reached over and ran his hand across her hair and down onto her neck. "And before you hurt me," he said quickly, "I do have ahold of your neck."

She started giggling...and kneed him in the thigh.

Duo choked on that, starting to laugh himself as he hopped over sideways and the rest of the workers turned to give him a skeptical look. "No! No!" he gestured them off. "Don't mind me! I'm just trying to get my ass kicked, that's all..."

Reg grinned down at him imperiously a moment, then turned her head to look at her assistant. "Why don't you show good Mr. Temblar the plans we got," she suggested to him. "I'm going to go take lunch," she smiled sweetly at him. "Isn't that right, Mr. Supervisor?"

Duo grinned at her and rolled his eyes, gesturing her off. "Actually, it's time for a-team to break," he looked up and around. "I can't wait for this to get done," he gestured up at the house. "I'm tired of looking at it."

- -

Matty sighed as he moved back onto the floor, smiling at a woman who was looking at bike tires. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he offered.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," she smiled back.

He smiled more and moved down the aisle.

Honestly, he was tired of working retail. They were nearly done with the stuff they'd borrowed to make the door between the two apartments. Heero'd taken the day off to finish it...and they'd been talking.

It had started out with jokes and teasing not long after they'd gotten back after rescuing Zechs. He'd made them all breakfast a few days in a row, then had supper ready. He'd cleaned the apartments, too, because they were in some...lazy-man state. Duo'd noted he made a good house-wife...and it had gone from there. Heero had apologized to him after the others had all started in on the matter, at least for after Duo and Quatre started making out. It had been Wufei and Trowa teasing him, then. Heero always apologized when they started. Wufei wasn't so bad, but Trowa could be a dick.

The matter had worked around to the point that they all really _did_ appreciate him cleaning up like that, and it was nice to have food when they got in—Quatre had suggested something about non-asian food at one point, and it made Matty grin.

Really, he _liked_ Wufei's cooking.

They'd be fine with him living there if he kept house for them...and that was a definite thought. He hadn't lived outside his father's house before, and this seemed like a prime opportunity.

He sat at his desk and logged back into his account. He hadn't had an overly busy day, but he hadn't been bored yet.

He looked up and spotted a familiar form down an aisle. It was an almost nostalgic moment, really, because that was the same place he'd _first_ seen Heero. The man was looking at the shelves, and then his eyes moved up...to Matty.

Matty grinned at him.

"Hey, lover," Heero muttered, leaning over to kiss him really quick. "I finished the door a while ago."

"Did you?" Matty asked, hopping up and looking around. He lifted his phone when he realized he had no customers, and rang the service desk.

"Matt?" the man working asked blankly.

"Hey," Matty returned. "My boyfriend just brought the stuff we borrowed back. There's no one in my section, so I'm just going to run and get it signed back in, all right?"

"Alright," the man agreed.

Matty grinned and hung up the phone, waving briefly at the cashiers as he passed through the front doors behind Heero. It didn't take them long to have the car at the back entrance, and since they had a second anyway...he leaned over for a proper kiss.

Things probably would have gone a bit further, but Heero always managed to keep his mind about him—he'd ruined all sorts of fun opportunities with that.

Matty smirked at him.

"I'm going to go to work when I'm done here," Heero noted. "So let's not make today any longer than it has to be."

Matty giggled at him and slid from the car, moving to the back door and knocking.

"You get lost on the way back?" Blake, who'd opened the thing, asked skeptically as he looked between them.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Matty reassured him, then turned to the trunk Heero had opened and started to pull stuff out.

"Hey, Max," Blake greeted Heero. "How're you?"

"Can't complain," Heero returned easily. "You?"

"Just peachy," Blake retorted in amusement, moving around Matty toward the trunk. "What the hell were you doing?" he added to the teen. "Tearing down a wall?"

"A good four or so feet across and five or seven high," Heero agreed. "Making a door."

"That's one way to do it, I suppose," he noted in amusement, following them toward the check-in area. "I always just...use the door already there."

"We're buying the penthouse next to ours," Heero retorted. "We had to leave it to go to the other half."

Penthouse?' Blake mouthed at Matty.

Matty smirked at him and shrugged innocently.

"One of the roommates is a contractor," Heero added easily. "But he works for a real piece of work who won't let him borrow the equipment, so we just grabbed it from here. Hey," he added, since he'd set his stuff on the counter. He wrapped his arms around Matty's waist and leaned down so they were eye to eye. "Let's go out tonight."

"You're in uniform," the woman checking the stuff in noted.

Matty grinned and pulled away from Heero. He nodded slightly.

"Pandora's?" Heero muttered in his ear, then noted Blake watching them and smirked, moving back.

"I don't have anything to wear there," Matty protested. It was a high-class joint that he'd admired several times over, but...

Heero considered him levelly a moment, then gestured with his head. The teen followed easily until they were at the car. "Here," Heero muttered, pulling out a couple hundred dollar bills from his wallet. "Stop on the way home and get something," Heero whispered, then kissed him.

That, too, was getting interesting when it was interrupted.

Someone cleared their throat at the door.

Heero sniggered and bit lightly at Matty's throat before pulling away and winking at the guy. He shut the trunk, then turned back to the car.

Matty licked his lips as he backed away, then realized he was holding three-hundred dollars in cash out in the open. He grinned to himself and pulled out his wallet, tucking the bills in.

"What the hell?" the guy working protested, reaching over and snatching them so he could see. "What the..."

Heero's car had stopped, and Blake realized he was being watched.

He let the cash go and showed his empty hands to Heero, shrugging slightly.

"Smooth," Matty noted, tucking the money back into the wallet and smiling at Heero. He turned back into the building, running his hands through his hair.

"Did he say Pandora's?" the guy added, giving chase. "Seriously?"

"Yes, he did," Matty agreed.

"And Penthouse," the guy noted.

Matt nodded again.

"And that really was an old-style jag, wasn't it?"

"Even manual," Matty agreed, stopping to meet his eyes.

"How the _fuck_ did you find the perfect man?" the man protested. "I've been looking for years."

Matty laughed, moving toward the main of the building. "I sold him a carpet...and got laid for the trouble." He laughed as he hesitated in the door. "At some point in the fun he decided he liked me enough to be serious, so here we are." He winked.

"So...you think I'd meet a good guy if I sold carpets?" the guy asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

"It's worth a try," Matty noted in amusement. "Let the managers know and I'll train you up for it."

He started laughing as Matty moved back out the door.

Somehow...his day didn't seem so boring now. Hopefully, he'd have someone at his counter, that way he wouldn't have to be bored.

- -

Wufei slumped down in his chair, studying the floor below him. He was the manager for a shipping company, and his job tended to be easy. He ran around telling people what to do in the morning, and spent his afternoons being friends with people. The work wasn't hard, and according to _his_ manager, morale was higher than it had been in years.

None of them had realized how close to an alcoholic he'd become. None of them knew why he had disappeared for...what had it been? A month? They'd all been happy to have him back.

Was that bad? Or was that good? It certainly reassured him of his own ability to deceive people. He'd never doubted that, though.

He shook his head, shifting back in his seat.

"Mr. Cambell?"

Wufei turned to look at Jorge curiously.

The man tilted his head slightly. "Can I talk to you?"

"Come in," Wufei reassured him quickly, gesturing at him. "You know you don't have to..." he trailed off as the man closed the door.

"I was...I don't think anyone needs to hear this," Jorge explained, moving to sit at the couch behind Wufei. The office was narrow, so the couch he had for people talking to him was directly behind his seat and computer—and his view of the floor, but that wasn't important.

"What's on your mind?" Wufei returned easily, moving his chair back so they could sit facing one another.

The guy sat hesitantly, obviously unsure about himself. He studied Wufei a long moment, then shrugged very slightly. "You were gone a while, huh?"

"I had some things to attend to," Wufei agreed easily. "Wasn't entirely my idea, but..." he shrugged himself.

"I watch the news, you know?" the guy added. "It's always interesting to see what's going on in the colonies."

Wufei cocked his head to the side. He was pretty sure he understood what the man meant by that, but he wasn't just going to say he understood.

"Right...Brigadier?"

Wufei snorted slightly, sitting back in his seat. "First and foremost, I value my privacy. My life here," he gestured to the building, "is quite pleasant. I feel no need to run around announcing that when you put me in a military setting, I wear a star. Do you understand that?"

"You really _are_ Chang Wufei," the guy breathed, staring at his face in amazement. "I always thought there was an interesting likeness, but I figured he was just the same Asian stock as you, but..."

"Jorge?" Wufei asked, leaning forward so they could be eye to eye.

"Sorry," the guy shook his head slightly. "What did you say?"

"I said," Wufei muttered, "that I value my privacy."

"Oh!" the guy focused a bit better and grinned. "I understand that entirely! I'm sorry to have bugged you," he started to stand up.

Wufei grabbed his forearm before he could move, studying his face. "Was that all you needed?"

"Well, yeah," the guy shrugged slightly. "I just couldn't stand not being sure anymore—this is amazing. You've been here _years_..."

"And will remain here a while yet," Wufei noted somewhat pointedly. "But only if you don't go running off and telling all your friends and coworkers."

"I know! I'm sorry to bother you!" the man smiled brightly at him...and shook the hand Wufei was using to hold him. "I'm honored, really...I'll...I'll get back to work," he smiled again, then disappeared from the office.

Wufei blinked.

That had been...unexpected. He turned in his seat to watch the man bouncing down the stairs, then stopping to look around. He disappeared to the right, into the hall.

Wufei couldn't tell if his foreboding feeling was from paranoia or not, but did know he didn't particularly have high hopes.

- -

"Hey," Timothy slid up beside Trowa as they moved down the hall. "We're still on for tonight, right?"

"That was my plan," Trowa agreed, grinning at his friend. "I'd assumed yours hadn't changed."

"Your buddies don't care, right?" the guy asked curiously. "I mean, I don't want to impose..."

"Just be aware that they'll insist we're seeing each other," Trowa reassured him. "As long as we don't go see a movie together or go out to eat..."

"Oh, but there was a place downtown I wanted you to take me," Timothy frowned slightly.

Trowa snorted, leaning over to be in the guy's face and study his lips—it was a maneuver Heero pulled when he decided he was being an ass for the day. "Listen," he muttered, flicking his eyes up to his friend's. "I can take you wherever you wanna go."

Timothy laughed and shoved him off.

"Hey, Tim," Bill muttered, moving from the employee lounge to look between them. "You okay? What's going on?"

Trowa smirked at Timothy—no one had believed him before, when he'd said he was rich and had a penthouse and lived with his buddies. "I said to knock it off," Trowa noted in a random direction to his right.

Timothy started laughing.

"No, I won't sleep with him," Trowa added happily, sliding his hands in his pockets and starting down the hall. He stopped next to Bill a moment and licked his lips with a grin. He sniggered slightly to himself, then turned into the employee lounge.

"You okay? For real?" Bill asked quietly of Timothy.

"He's fucking with you on purpose," Timothy retorted in amusement. "Just try talking to him..."

"When he doesn't give you the brush off," the man pointed out, "then he's telling you those stories..."

"I told you, I _met_ his roommates. They seriously live in the pent...and are buying the second. We're not lying."

"I won't believe it until I see it," Bill retorted.

"Keep your voice down," Timothy muttered. "He can hear you fine."

"He's in the room," the man noted.

"I'm going to have to throw a party or something before you lot get over yourselves, won't I?" Trowa called into the hall pointedly. "I guess Ian won't mind it...and maybe War'll be okay with it..."

"What kind of name is War? Sounds like the riders of the apocalypse," Bill hissed.

"It's _Warrick_," Timothy noted in irritation. "You know what? Whatever? Rige?" he didn't change the volume of his voice.

"Oh, like he can hear..."

"Yeah?" Trowa returned.

"You get me my coffee?"

"Of course," Trowa reassured him, setting that aside. "Maybe tomorrow, huh?"

Timothy moved into the lounge, giving him a level look.

Trowa laughed. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why do you fuck with them?" the man returned, moving to get his cup and a donut from a carton beside the pot. "Why can't you just be straight with them?"

"Because they don't matter," Trowa noted, moving toward the couches. "You should know by now that you have to gain my attention before I give a damn about you."

"I suppose," the man sighed, passing him a second donut and dropping down next to him. "You're right, though."

"Usually," Trowa agreed. "What about?"

Timothy snorted at him. "I really wanted to see if we could go to a nice place I saw," he explained. "The...one called Panda or something..."

"If I take you out to dinner and you keep showing up in the evenings," Trowa pointed out, "my roommates are going to try to insist we're seeing each other."

"I know," Timothy sighed. "I didn't really think about it..."

"Let's just do it," Trowa suggested, starting to eat the donut. "I mean, honestly? Duo's so wrapped up in Quatre anymore it's stupid, and Wufei's in it for the laugh. Heero will tease, and so will Matt, but I don't think it'll be an issue."

Tim shrugged slightly. "Why can't you be a chick?" he muttered.

"Because I have a dick," Trowa retorted, shifting back in his seat.

"Hey...Timothy," another coworker named Anthony muttered, moving into the room with his eyes on Trowa.

"Hey," Timothy muttered back, blinking at him.

"You doin' all right?" the guy asked, glancing sidelong at Trowa.

"Tim?" Trowa purred, meeting his eyes before he could respond. "Tell him no."

Timothy snickered and looked around to the man again. "No."

The man frowned at both of them.

"You just coming home from work with me, or are you coming over later?" Trowa stood.

"I have some stuff to do. I'll do that, change, then take the bus to your place," Timothy returned quickly. He'd recognized Trowa's tone. "Rige..."

Trowa moved around the couches and directly into Anthony's face, ignoring his friend as if he hadn't spoken. "If you think I'm crazy now," he whispered in the guy's ear, "just wait until you piss me off."

"You've been following him around since you got back," Anthony spat back. "You can't intimidate me."

"Tr...Rigel!" Timothy started to his feet.

Trowa slammed the man against the door in the same instant, remaining in his face as Timothy started around the couches. "You _want_ me to intimidate you?" he whispered, not backing off. "And truth be told, he's been following _me_ around."

Timothy moved up and grabbed Trowa's bicep. Trowa allowed himself to be pulled back, then looked around to Timothy. "I can just come pick you up, that way it's a direct drive."

"I'll...I'll think about it," Timothy returned, sounding nervous.

"If he's bothering you, then tell someone," Anthony snapped at Timothy. People were gathering in the hall. Actually, they had been since before Anthony moved in.

Evidently they were all _with_ Anthony.

"You know what," Trowa noted, turning to Timothy himself. "I have _no_ idea where you idiots got the idea that I have imaginary friends, or that I'm full of shit, but I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm throwing a party tomorrow night in my penthouse," he looked them all over levelly. "You should all come."

They all exchanged nervous looks.

"Don't worry," Trowa noted, pushing through people. "I'll write the address down and draw up a map—and I'll give you all the password so our doorman will let you up."

The people blinked after him as he stormed down the hall.

"What the hell are you doing?" Timothy demanded of Anthony. He met eyes with all the people who were looking at him. "What did you think?"

"We all know he could get dangerous," Anthony noted in a dark voice. "We just didn't know if you needed help."

"With my _friend?_" Timothy snapped back, starting to shove through the crowd himself. "Rigel?" he called, moving free and starting after the other. "Rige?"

"Can you stop calling me that?" Trowa demanded, turning on him as they entered his office.

"You said in public you wanted me to use it," Timothy snapped back. "Don't get all pissy with me because _they're_ annoying."

"We're in the office now," Trowa retorted irritably, dropping in his chair and pulling up a multi-text. "I really hoped he'd push me back."

Timothy blinked as a wicked grin crossed Trowa's face. His eyes were sparkling when he met Tim's. All traces of anger were gone, and the tension had entirely left his frame.

"That was kinda fun," he added, half-focusing on typing. "Every now and again I enjoy public displays."

Timothy sat back, narrowing his eyes.

"What? What's that look for?"

"Were you fucking _acting?_"

Trowa started sniggering and shrugged innocently. He hadn't been, not really, but the emotions had come and gone in a flash. He didn't plan to _admit_ that, though. That sort of thing seemed to make people nervous—it confused the hell out of Heero, but the others...

Timothy closed his eyes, then pressed his fingertips to them.

Trowa sniggered. "You haven't known me _nearly_ long enough...did you know, that without cutting my hair or changing my appearance in _any_ way, I joined the Barton revolution as a spy? I even _fooled_ Wufei."

Timothy blinked, looking up at him.

"Fei was a little..." he whistled and made a circular gesture next to his temple. "I suppose if he'd been himself I wouldn't have pulled it off, but I wasn't so close to him as to Duo."

"Okay, the dichotomy of Rigel the paper-pusher and Trowa the war-god is kinda creepy—the two never need to cross."

"War god?" Trowa asked, his face breaking into an even brighter grin. "I think I like that—it's inaccurate, but I like it..." he ran his hand down his face. "And Rigel is just another alias...another act. A game I play to fit in...it's like being undercover, but my enemies don't have guns, they have cameras and gossip tabloids. I haven't been able to figure out which one I like to face better though."

Timothy snorted, giving him a look.

"So, here in about fifteen or twenty minutes, Heero's gonna show up with a map and the address. Can you make sure everyone here knows they're invited?"

"And now that I see you're not nearly so pissed as you were coming off, how am I supposed to act?"

"Say you calmed me down," Trowa shrugged. "Say I'm in a better mood—but get as many of the dumbasses who think I'm psycho as you can to come. I'm tired of everyone bugging you about me hanging off you," he rolled his eyes.

"I _have_ been following you around," Timothy noted, smirking slightly as he started to stand.

"Mm, once you've been in my bed, you never wanna go anywhere else again."

Timothy guffawed as he started for the door, then hesitated. "It is damn comfy, isn't it?"

Trowa started laughing, and focused on his computer.

- -

Heero looked around the large office are with interest as he moved into the room.

"Can I help you?" a man at a desk near the door asked.

Heero smiled happily at him. "Hi, I'm Max Tsuyo," he explained. "I'm looking for Rigel Eston."

The man stared at him.

"I'm his roommate," Heero explained happily, raising the map he'd drawn. "He asked me to bring this."

A tall man with dark hair stood and looked Heero over as he moved nearer. "You're his roommate?"

"One of," Heero agreed, moving to follow. "His office is over here, right?" he pointed at the area Trowa had described. Actually, Trowa'd told him the layout of the area, and having seen it, he knew exactly where Trowa's office was, but this man seemed to him like Anthony—the one Trowa'd never really liked, and who he'd almost attacked at break.

"His office is right..." the man started as they neared the door.

"Hey, asshole," Heero muttered, pushing into the room.

Trowa gave Heero a look.

"You asked _me_ to come," Heero reminded him, tossing the maps he'd drawn in front of his friend. "I had to tell my boss I had something to turn in from..."

"Why were you at work?" Trowa retorted. "I thought you were finishing the door."

"I finished it a bit before lunch," Heero explained. "Returned the stuff and all that jazz, thought I'd be a good boy and go in for a few hours and get a text from you."

Trowa grinned. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were working or I wouldn't have asked...thanks."

"Its fine, but I need to get back," he turned and almost ran into Anthony. "Excuse you," he noted pointedly—the man shifted out of his way, and Heero bounced toward the door. He stopped, though, looking over his shoulder. "Where's Tim?"

"He's got a cubicle around the wall and to the left...about halfway," Trowa shrugged.

"I'm gonna go bug him," Heero noted...and bounced from the room.

Anthony looked back to Trowa blankly.

"What?" Trowa asked in return. "As far as I knew he was just taking today off." He grinned. "You _are_ coming to the party, aren't you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

Duo felt a battle-like thrill as he moved through the newer group of workers toward the exit of the lot. He'd put his gear in his locker, and they'd all been standing around, pretending to ignore him. When he'd started from the area, they'd all more or less gathered by the gate.

So, the big guy was taking him up on his offer for a fight after work hours.

He smiled, looking the men in the eyes as he went. If they all tried to take him at once, he'd be in trouble...if they just stood back and watched, he'd be fine. He hadn't had a chance to prove himself to the lot. He didn't care to, actually. Victor had already noted they weren't as hard working as he needed, so he wasn't calling them back in to help ever again...but that was beside the point.

Really, he had a little too much pent up energy. Quatre was digging down deep into his control, and if he actually went out, the blond would get very upset with him for it. He had to wade through the bullshit, and that always made him a bit antsy. That wasn't mentioning any of the worries he had about the colonies and the fact that Rabid Marsh was building up into an attack.

A nice fight would be good—even if it was all ten or fifteen of them on him.

The big guy moved from the gate itself with his arms crossed, meeting Duo's eyes.

"So dramatic," Duo noted happily, sliding his hands into his pockets as he stopped. "You wanna be an actor?"

The man narrowed his eyes.

Duo grinned back at him, moving forward again, then stopped. "Excuse me."

"I thought you said we could have a conversation when we weren't on the clock. We're not on the clock."

"Ah," Duo smirked, then jerked his head, moving past the man. "If you're fool enough to try it _in_ the work parameter, I'm going to be disappointed in you. Let me put my shit in the car and we can get on with it."

"Why did Reg scream?" he asked levelly.

"I'm just that good," Duo returned easily, moving up next to his car and popping the trunk. He tossed his stuff inside and looked around as he saw the men admiring the machine. He closed the thing somewhat pointedly, then tucked the keys away and turned back to the big one. "So, what did you wanna talk about?"

"You think you're awfully hot shit," the man noted.

"So do you," Duo pointed out, leaning against his car. "If I were properly single I'd seduce you and be done with it, but I'm not in that position."

The men shifted around, looking to each other.

The big one laughed mirthlessly. "So funny, so so funny..."

"Reg thinks so," Duo pointed out, smirking slightly. "I've seen you noticing her noticing."

The man narrowed his eyes. "Listen to me, pussy..."

"Petty name calling?" Duo demanded, straightening. "Seriously? You can't just say you wanna kick my ass or something?" he pushed away from the car with a disappointed sigh and moved to stand in the man's face. "I'm putting you in your place," he noted darkly.

It was that easy to start the fight.

Granted, the man had been trying again and again to out-do Duo. He'd been trying to measure up and surpass him, but Duo was having too much fun to let himself be outshined.

...and really, he'd picked Reg up off the ground and held her over his head. You'd think the guys would have realized the strength that _really_ took.

The guy fell hard on the cement, winded as Duo stood over him, looking down at him calmly. It took him one deep breath to control his breathing, and he raised his eyes to look at the man's cohorts.

"You don't know me," Duo noted levelly, looking them all over. "You don't know anything about me. As far as you're concerned, I showed up out of nowhere and started telling you what to do—and that's exactly it. I'm in charge of this site, I'm in charge of this building," he indicated the house, "and no matter how much you don't like it, that's how it is. I don't need or care for your approval or acceptance. You do what I say and get the fucking job done, then get on with your lives."

The big guy rose to his feet, seething with anger.

"Do you honestly want to fight me?" Duo spat in his face, moving so they were eye to eye. "You seriously wanna throw down right here?"

"I can take you," the man spat.

"I'll make this quick," Duo noted. "I still need to go talk to Victor before I can go home..." the man threw a punch before Duo had finished talking, but that was fine.

He didn't know if the guy felt it or not, but the fight got _fun_. The guy wasn't nearly so bad a fighter as he'd expected, so not long into it he was actually using some of his skill. When he got into a brawling match, he didn't usually get that option—he'd even been hit a few times.

It was exhilarating.

Before he knew it, his elbow was sailing down in the killing-strike, and he had at least a half a moment to freeze the motion before hurting a man who was defenseless...

The man was staring up at him in something like horror.

Duo spat off to the side, rising to his feet and looking the men over—at first, they'd been cheering the other man on, and at some undistinguished point, they'd started to become alarmed. They were staring at Duo, not sure what to do or say.

"You're a soldier," the man he'd downed spat, picking himself up a bit unsteadily to glare at Duo. "You're..."

"Just some war-rick bastard with blood on his hands," Duo agreed, spitting again and glaring at the cowed group.

"You nearly killed me," the man noted, his eyes locked onto Duo's.

"Key word 'nearly'," Duo agreed. "If you challenge me again, I _won't_ hold back."

They all stared at him as he started to move through them, melting from his path. They'd moved out of the way by the time he was in his car, and they all watched him leave the parking lot—they seemed stunned, uncertain.

That was just fucking _great_.

- -

Quatre ran his hands through his hair again as he looked into the bathroom mirror, still not sure what he thought about what he saw.

He'd dyed his hair black—had it dyed, professionally, at least. And they'd darkened his eyebrows so it looked natural. It drastically changed his appearance, and he liked how startling his ice-blue eyes looked with that darker contrast...but he still wasn't sure about it.

But hey, he wasn't blond.

His cell started ringing.

"Hello?" he asked, a twinge of nerves darting through him—it was Duo.

"Hey, sweet," Duo muttered, sounding tired. "Listen, don't take this the wrong way...but can you not talk to me before my shower?"

"What?" Quatre asked blankly.

"That big asshole that started working? You know?" he hesitated a moment. "Well, after work today...he challenged me."

"And you fought him," Quatre noted, feeling vaguely annoyed by this. "You..."

"I'm so severely pissed right now..." he trailed off. " Gah...don't read me, all right? You don't need to feel this."

"What do you mean by that?" Quatre snapped. "Protecting me?"

"I will _always_ protect you," Duo spat the words. "Are you in the apartment?"

"I am," Quatre agreed. "In the bathroom."

"I just want to get into the bathroom and shower," Duo noted. "After I'm showered I think the urge to break things will pass. Okay? You get that? It doesn't hurt you?"

Quatre closed his eyes a moment, but he had to smile. "Fine," he noted. "I'll go play that game of Matt's in the other apartment...the door is done," he noted. "Heero'd had it finished by the time I got home."

"Yeah?" Duo sounded minutely less stressed. "That's good."

"You'll come find me when you feel better?" Quatre asked, biting his lip.

"I will," Duo agreed tiredly. "I'm here."

The line went dead and Quatre frowned at the phone, lowering it. He looked back up at his reflection in the mirror, and wondered if he could feel anymore disappointed.

He wanted to know what Duo thought, but...

The former blond moved from the bathroom and over to the window, looking down. Duo's car had already disappeared, and as he watched, he could see Duo moving toward the building. He ran his hands through his hair again, then turned and headed for the bedroom area.

He'd wanted Duo to be the first, but he had no idea why Wufei and Heero weren't home yet. One of them might spot him first...

- -

Duo was grateful no one was home but Quatre as he dried his hair with the towel. He hadn't expected to have a conversation with his friend, but it had made him feel better. He actually could have come into the apartment fine by the time they hung up.

Quatre had that effect on him sometimes...that soothing...

He moved from the bathroom, listening a moment. "Quatre?"

"I'm putting a load in," Quatre called from the laundry room. "You feeling better?"

"Much," Duo agreed, moving toward the couch. "You get what you wanted to done today?" He dropped across it.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," there was amusement in that. "Hold on." The washing machine started.

Duo grinned slightly and sat up, leaning forward to grab the remote. It only took him a moment to have the TV on as Quatre moved from the laundry room.

"I'm sorry if I was an ass," he noted, looking toward the far-distant ceiling. "I didn't mean to..."

"Hey," Quatre muttered, slithering over the back of the couch.

Duo had a moment's perception of too-dark hair before Quatre's mouth met his. His friend's familiar weight moved onto his lap as they kissed, and Duo forgot what he'd been thinking.

This was one of the things that drove him mad about Quatre. He'd jump into the kissing eagerly, but the moment things started going beyond that he got nervous.

Duo couldn't really blame him, but...

Wait a minute.

Duo pulled back, the idea of dark hair coming again...and stared at Quatre's face.

Quatre raised a hand to his black hair, swallowing slightly as he studied Duo's eyes. "I'm not blond."

Duo blinked again, raising his hand to touch Quatre's darker eyebrows, then to run his hands through the hair itself.

"Um..." Quatre muttered nervously. "Uh...what...what do you think?"

"Wow," Duo muttered, still messing with it. "Just...wow..."

"Is that...good?" Quatre pressed, studying his eyes expectantly. "I don't want to read you...I..."

"Wow," Duo repeated, his mind catching up with the situation. He cupped Quatre's face in his hands, studying his eyes. "...Wow."

Quatre laughed a little at that, resting his hands on Duo's wrists. "Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you say something...other than wow?"

Duo laughed...and leaned forward to start kissing the former-blond again.

Quatre seemed to decide to take his reaction as acceptance—which was a good thing, because Duo didn't know if he could say anything else about the drastic change.

"Your eyes are killer," he whispered after a moment, pulling back to study them.

Quatre smiled at him, slightly abashed, then pressed himself up from where he'd been laying on the couch. "How the hell did I get on my back?"

"I like you that way," Duo noted wickedly.

"That better not be the...only...way...you like me," Quatre muttered, pushing himself up. He was feeling a little reckless after the evident approval of his sudden decision. He crawled back onto Duo's lap, starting to kiss on him again.

"Mm, think about what you just said," Duo suggested in his ear as Quatre kissed on his throat. "Between me and you...I really do like you on your back, you know..."

Quatre laughed, pulling away to meet his sparkling eyes. "I already told you that you were a jerk, didn't I?"

"I think so," Duo muttered, shifting them around again.

The thing was that Quatre didn't like losing control. When he was on his back, or beneath Duo, it was Duo in control. He trusted Duo, and loved the intimacy that was growing between them, but he also knew that Heero could seduce anyone—and Heero'd learned his stuff from Duo.

Quatre wasn't ready to give up control just yet...

It ended up with Duo leaning against the arm of the couch nearer the sleeping-area and Quatre straddling him...and things were seriously starting to get interesting with the way Duo was shifting his hips...

"Oi, idiot," Heero muttered in French as the front door shut. "I know not to say anything, but the blond is going to be home any time now—you sure you want him walking in on this?"

Duo's eyes closed tightly as he cursed silently to himself.

"_What_ did you just say?" Quatre demanded, straightening to turn and look at Heero.

Heero's jaw dropped as he stared at Quatre.

"You just said you know not to say anything?"

"What happened to your hair?" Heero returned in blank astonishment.

"I had a really stressful day and instead of going gray it went black," Quatre spat back, starting to climb off.

"It's customary!" Duo protested, trying to keep ahold of Quatre. "It's a courtesy of friends!"

"And what are we?" Quatre spat back, still trying to untangle himself. "What about _our_ friendship!"

"If he actually were seeing someone else," Heero snapped, "it would hurt you. I'd avoid that."

Quatre stopped, turning to look at him in amazement.

"What did you do to your _hair_?" Heero persisted, running a hand over his face and moving toward him. "I would never have recognized you if you didn't start talking."

"Obviously," Quatre agreed darkly, glaring down at Duo. "Are you going to let me go?"

"You don't honestly think I'd start shit with someone else, do you?" Duo snapped, sitting up. "You don't really think, that after everything I've put into being with you that I'd..."

"Why not?!" Quatre retorted, jerking himself free and stumbling as he stood. "You already said you wanted laid!"

"By _you_," Duo snapped, standing up himself and glaring at Quatre.

Quatre huffed.

"Do you honestly think I'd be stupid enough anyway, to bring someone _here_ when I'm expecting you _home_?"

"So now when you're late, I'm gonna..."

"Gonna what?" Duo raised his voice over Quatre's. "That's just great, _blondie_," he snapped, starting for the door.

"Where are you going!" Quatre protested, running around and getting in front of Duo before he could get to the thing. "I thought we were going out tonight..."

Duo stared down at him in amazement.

Quatre looked down and away, waiting.

Heero considered the pair a long moment, feeling guilty. If he'd just taken a moment longer to appraise the situation, he would have _realized_ it was Quatre. But then again, he'd gotten Quatre to vocalize some of his insecurities, and that would help Duo win him over in the end.

"Uh...I got the door done," he muttered to Duo.

Duo focused on him irritably a moment, then turned away and started for the area. Quatre followed immediately after him, not looking around.

"Looks...professional," Duo complimented as he stopped at the thing and Quatre moved up under his arm, pressing his head to Duo's chest.

"Thanks," Heero muttered, moving in slowly after them.

"Heero, your shoes," Quatre muttered.

Heero stopped, looking down at the things. He smiled briefly at Quatre, then turned and disappeared from the area.

Duo sighed, squeezing him slightly. "Come on," he suggested. "Let's go into the room."

Quatre didn't speak, and followed silently when Duo started away. "Duo?"

"Yeah?" Duo asked as they moved into the room and he closed the door.

"I guess...I'm sorry," Quatre noted, focusing slowly on Duo's emotions.

He hated to do it, but he had to be sure...and the only way to be sure was to know what Duo was feeling...feel it as he said it.

"Sorry for what?" Duo returned, moving to drop onto the bed. His spirits were low.

"For freaking out on you," Quatre returned, moving forward slowly and stopping in front of the other. "I just...I know you don't have to make the slightest effort to bring someone home...and...me?" he studied Duo's eyes. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Quatre," Duo muttered, pulling him down onto his lap again to study his eyes. "If all I wanted out of our relationship was the sex, I'd have had it by now and been done with it. I like being with _you_...being _close_ to you...and really, what Heero said is like...the unspoken agreement...we _aren't_ a couple yet. As far as these things go, I'm still single."

"But...you can't...I mean..." Quatre hesitated a moment, looking down. "I just..."

"Even with that, I'm not gonna have more than my head turned," Duo muttered, nuzzling at Quatre's cheek. "I'm not particularly interested in anyone else right now."

"I don't like the idea of you being with someone else," Quatre admitted, raising his eyes to meet Duo's as best he could. "I just..."

"Do you...want to be with me?" Duo asked quietly. "For real?"

Quatre licked his lips, then nodded, looking away.

Duo smiled, leaning up to kiss him...moving more until Quatre was laying on the bed. "Then I'll tell that to Heero—and that agreement will be suspended."

Quatre sort of laughed, then swallowed. "So...you're my boyfriend, huh?"

"I like to hear you say that," Duo muttered, starting to kiss at his mouth again. "I really do."

Quatre sniggered, then licked his lips again as his heart pounded. He'd grown used to feeling Duo's mannerisms—just the physical force of his body. There were times when he was gentle as a kitten...and others where he was all pent up energy and force...there was an electric excitement about his body that was starting to make Quatre shiver. His hands were possessive, and even though Quatre knew he shouldn't...he let it stand.

Duo's grin was brief and feral...it shouldn't have been, but it was reassuring at the same time. He _had_ to trust Duo. Duo knew it, he'd been pushing at Quatre's boundaries the entire time, slowly, lightly—but Quatre'd had to dye his hair and...and...

"Do that again," Quatre hissed, too shocked to realize what he was saying or what had happened. It had been a shock of pleasure; it'd sent tingles through his entire body...well, okay, not entire...he gasped as Duo actually did do it again.

He wasn't sure what was really happening...it was hot, and everything Duo did was electrifying. They were moving together, closer and closer.

"Whoa..." Duo gasped, pulling back.

Quatre followed, not wanting to let him loose.

"Whoa..." Duo protested again, pulling back and grabbing his wrists. "Whoa," he breathed, "Jesus, Quatre..."

"What?" Quatre demanded blankly.

"Or do you want to fuck?" Duo breathed, leaning down so they were eye to eye.

Quatre blinked up at him, realizing his heart was pounding hard in his chest.

Duo laughed an almost cold laugh. It sounded distinctly evil, and pulled away. "Wow," he muttered as he attempted to catch his breath. He sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing his face.

"What...just...happened?" Quatre demanded.

Duo considered him a moment, laughing darkly as he stood. "You nearly lost your virginity."

Quatre blinked. "What?"

Duo turned and started for the door, hesitating at it. "You need to rein in your enthusiasm. I'm very enthusiastic myself, and, uh," he smirked back over his shoulder. "I've been known to lose my head. I'm hopping in the shower right quick...I made us reservations at Pandora's."

- -

"Don't start making food," Trowa muttered quickly to Wufei as he moved into the apartment with Timothy on his heels.

Wufei, who had a few cans around the countertops, looked up at him blankly. "What?"

"I said don't start cooking. Duo told me earlier that he's taking Quatre out, and Heero said he's taking Matt out—and, uh..."

"Hey, Tim," Wufei greeted the guy easily. "Uh what?"

"Um," Trowa flashed him a brief grin. "I'm taking him out," he indicated Timothy with his head.

Wufei looked between them skeptically.

"Don't say it," Trowa muttered quickly, sliding onto a stool. "Just don't say it."

"I will when you kiss him," Wufei returned placidly, then sighed and shoved the cans over to one side as he looked away.

"I thought you'd have decided to go out, too," Trowa said quietly, frowning at his friend before looking around. "Where is everyone?"

"I think its Duo in there," Wufei pointed at the bathroom. "Other than that I haven't seen anyone. I saw both Heero and Quatre's cars were parked, though."

"Yeah, I figured they'd be running around getting ready."

"I had to get a cold one," Duo noted happily, throwing the door open to grin at them. He had a towel around his waist and was brushing his hair. "My boy's a little over eager." He flashed them a wicked grin.

"Your boy?" Trowa echoed skeptically. "You messing around on Quatre now?"

Duo rolled his eyes in a way that suggested severe annoyance. "Don't say stupid shit like that, really."

"Stupid shit like _that_?" Trowa protested.

"Heero came in earlier and told me..." Duo trailed off, then looked around to them with a wicked light in his eyes. "Anyway, Heero annoyed me and freaked Quatre out with a stupid remark like that. It worked out, though...and he's my boyfriend," he noted pointedly to Trowa.

Trowa's brow arched.

"He's your boyfriend now?" Wufei protested. "How are you gonna go down on me if you're with someone?"

Timothy and Trowa focused on Wufei in disbelief.

Duo looked Wufei over with his own skeptical expression, studying his groin briefly, then snorted and started from the bathroom. "We're leaving shortly. Where did Heero get to?"

"Couldn't tell you," Wufei noted glumly. "You're an asshole, Maxwell."

"_How_ much time did we have going around the colonies?" Duo retorted happily, stopping in the door to the bedroom. "You had a week or more where I was entirely free, and you bitched out because you pretend to be straight or something. I have no sympathy for you."

Trowa snickered.

"That sucks," Wufei noted, shoving the cans further away from himself. "I wasn't counting on it or anything, but it might have been fun if I was drunk."

"So you're pouting because Duo's got a boyfriend," Trowa noted, grinning at him. "You need to go out tonight and get laid."

"Since you are?" Wufei retorted, looking pointedly to Timothy before disappearing into the bathroom.

"He's chipper," Timothy muttered quietly, frowning at Trowa.

Trowa sighed and shrugged, heading toward the rooms himself. "He'll be all right. That shit with his colony is settling down again. I guess some time next month his buddies are supposed to come down. You realize that everyone at Pandora's is gonna think we're dating, right?"

"Huh?" Timothy blinked as Trowa moved into his closet. "Why do you say that?"

"Because Pandora's is fine dining," Trowa explained, giving him look as he took out some slacks. "Most guys don't usually go there for a night out."

"I suppose it'd be harder to pick up chicks," the man noted thoughtfully.

"A bit," Trowa agreed sarcastically, then moved in further to pick a shirt.

Timothy snorted slightly, looking toward the hall as he heard a door close...and stopped.

"Oh, hey, Tim," Quatre muttered happily, moving into the room and looking around. "Is Tro here?"

"Hey, Quatre," Trowa muttered, moving from the closet and stopping to stare as well.

"What?" Quatre asked blankly.

"Your...hair..." Timothy breathed, moving closer to him in amazement.

The realization caused Quatre's eyes to absolutely sparkle as he straightened and turned. "What do you think?"

"Are you _okay_?" Trowa demanded, moving forward and dropping the clothes he'd picked onto Quatre's bed—they'd moved it from the wall so it lined up with Duo's bed, but was in the middle of the room. "Holy shit...you're not drunk or something are you?"

"What?" Quatre demanded blankly, his expression slightly hurt. "What do you mean by that?"

"Duo said you were over eager...and that you're his boyfriend...and this? Are you..."

"Oh!" Quatre laughed abashedly, running his hands through his hair as he tried to keep his flush under control. "I just...I'm tired of being called blondie...so I fixed it."

"And the crap about being Duo's boyfriend?"

"Are you fucking homophobic, seriously?" Quatre demanded, his mood shifting into mild annoyance. "You were freaking out about Matt before, too..."

"It's just..." Trowa blinked a few times, looking away as he thought. "Sorry, I just...wow...your hair."

Quatre snorted at that, moving forward and looking around. "I need to get ready to go."

"Yeah, that's what we're doing, too," Tim noted, looking Quatre over thoughtfully. "It looks good."

Quatre smiled at him, then winked as he slid past. "Don't let my boyfriend hear that or he might get jealous."

"Only if you don't let me watch," Duo retorted.

Tim jumped, looking guiltily around to Duo.

Duo grinned at them as Trowa looked him over. "Heero came in with us on the couch," he added. "Noted that he knew not to tell, but did I really want Quatre walking in on that."

"It bothered me," Quatre added, then disappeared into his closet.

"It occurred to me that I'd have to explain the details before you saw him," Duo added happily, moving around as well. He stopped next to Tim, leaning forward to be at his ear. "Watch yourself with my boy, I may take your actions the wrong way."

Timothy shifted away from him, not looking at him.

"Knock it off," Trowa muttered, shoving Duo away.

"Hey! I'm home!" Matt's voice was happy as he bounced into the apartment. "Heero? You here?"

"You're supposed to call him Max until you know whose all in here," Timothy reminded the guy happily.

"Everyone visiting parks in our lot," Matt retorted, moving into the room and looking everyone over. He had a bag in one hand and a box for shoes in the other.

"What's this?" Trowa asked, blinking.

"Me and Heero are going out, but I didn't have anything really nice," he shrugged. "When he brought the tools in..." his focus changed to the newly finished door. "Ooh, that looks nice...Heero? Where are you?" he disappeared.

"He's in an interesting mood," Trowa muttered blankly.

"Go figure," Duo agreed, moving from the closet. "Where's Fei?"

"I'm here," Wufei noted, moving around and entering the room. He looked everyone over darkly, then rolled his eyes. "I think I'm hitting the...holy shit."

They all looked from him to Quatre, who'd moved from his closet with slacks on and his shirt in hand. Quatre grinned wickedly at the Chinese man, then tilted his head slightly. "Eh?"

"Holy shit," Wufei repeated, moving closer to him. "Talk to me."

"Talk to you?" Quatre repeated skeptically. "That's either pillow talk or weird, I'm not sure which."

"It better not be pillow talk," Duo noted happily, studying Wufei's expression. "Unless you're both thinking threesome."

They both focused on him sharply, and he laughed wickedly before melting back into his closet.

"He's got a damn dirty mind," Timothy muttered into the silence that followed. "Had you ever noticed that?"

"I really had," Trowa agreed, looking nervously between the other two former pilots. "Why don't we head to your place and get ready there?"

"I think that's a good idea," Timothy agreed, following Trowa toward the door. "Later, guys."

"Later," Quatre returned, then moved slowly closer to Wufei.

"That's...drastic," Wufei said quietly, moving in closer and touching Quatre's hair. "Very drastic."

"I was just...really tired...of being called blondie," Quatre returned quietly, studying Wufei's expression.

"Is this what brought on the boyfriend thing?" Wufei focused on Quatre's eyes almost pointedly.

"Not entirely," Quatre muttered, brushing Wufei's hand away. "Heero came in saying he knew better then to tell me that Duo'd brought someone home, but I was due any time."

"He brought someone home?" Wufei snapped sharply.

"No, it was me," Quatre rolled his eyes, dropping onto the mattress. "I did this after lunch," he brushed his hair back from his face. "So when Duo got in I attacked him on the couch," his cheeks flushed slightly at the words. "It upset me."

"The not telling you part?" Wufei nodded his understanding as he dropped next to the other. "It's customary, you know. Since you and Duo hadn't solidified..." he blinked. "Oh."

Quatre grinned at him, studying his face. "Yeah, oh."

"All right, I got my mind mostly out of the gutter now," Duo noted happily, bouncing into the main room and looking between the pair of them. He stopped, blinking at them, then smirked and disappeared back into the closet.

Quatre laughed, bouncing to his feet. He looked back to Wufei a brief moment with a happy smile, then turned and disappeared into the closet.

Wufei sighed as they started whispering back and forth to each other, then stood and moved back into the main room.

He didn't really mind that they all had other plans, he just hadn't realized he'd need to make some of his own. It suggested to him a night of alcohol, and he didn't really want to go there...

The Chinese man sighed heavily and moved into the kitchen. There was a cupboard with a lock that they normally didn't use, but he was tired of the amount of drinking he did in private. His friends were helping him through most of his depression, and he didn't want them to realize he was only barely getting in control of his problem. He pulled the things from the cupboard he could foresee himself wanting, then started piling the alcohol bottles in instead.

"What's going on?" Duo asked curiously, stopping at the bar to watch. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure I don't drink myself to passing out," Wufei returned easily, putting the last bottle in. He took the key and turned it in the lock before turning and offering it to Duo.

"What?" Duo asked, taking the thing blankly.

"I don't have any plans tonight," Wufei shrugged, looking away. "That suggests to me that being here alone would be a keen time to drink until I stopped thinking."

"Oh," Duo studied the key a long moment with a frown, then tucked it into his pocket. "You sure?"

Wufei nodded, looking away from him.

"You...know I was kidding, right?" Duo asked, blinking at him. "I was teasing about the threesome thing."

Wufei focused on him levelly and rolled his eyes with a slight grin. "No you weren't. What do I want for supper?" he started for the fridge.

Duo sniggered evilly, then turned to look toward Quatre. The former blond was wearing a pair of his slacks with a well-fitted short-sleeved gray button-up. "Ooh," he muttered, looking the other over. "Please tell me you're coming to bed with me tonight..."

"If I end up in bed with you, what will happen before dawn?" Quatre retorted.

"Lots of _really_ good things," Duo returned easily, studying the other's groin with very evident interest.

Quatre snickered and smacked him, turning to look at Wufei. He smiled slightly at him and shrugged. "First date, huh?"

"Is it your first _ever_?" Wufei retorted.

"No!" Quatre gave him a mildly offended look. "You're mean to me."

"But you're so cute I can't help it," Wufei retorted.

Duo snorted at that, grabbing Quatre's hand. "We'll see you later, huh? You'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Wufei reassured him, tucking his hand into the pocket on the side that Duo'd stashed the key. "Hopefully."

Duo smiled slightly at him, and he and Quatre disappeared from the door.

"Did you see Quatre's hair?" Heero demanded, bouncing into the main room happily. He was dressed from head to toe as well, which included a black fedora. The thing made him look rakish, intent on mischief. The sparkle in his eyes only increased that impression.

"Quatre's?" Wufei repeated, looking his friend over skeptically. "I did...it's...striking."

"Like it?" Heero muttered, pulling the hat off and spinning it as he considered it. "Matty just bought it for me...I like it, I think it looks good," he placed it back on his head. "Does it look good?"

"You look...naughty," Wufei retorted, looking him up and down again. "I'm not sure why."

"I totally just tried to jump him when he came in the room," Heero noted happily. "He only sort of got away, so we had a quickie before he chased me out."

Wufei rolled his eyes, looking to the ceiling.

Heero laughed. "What are your big plans? Going bar hopping?"

That made Wufei shrug and look toward the cupboard. He almost wished he hadn't sent the key off with Duo.

"You okay?" Heero asked seriously, moving around the counter toward him. "You sure you're okay?"

"I wasn't expecting to be here alone tonight," Wufei shrugged, moving over to lean against the counter. "I thought Trowa was going to hang out and me and him were going to run around—but he had plans with Tim. I'll be fine...I'll go play that game for Matt or something."

"_Really_?" Matty burst into the room excitedly, dressed up himself. "You will? That's killer! I was planning on calling Ty and'em over again tomorrow...that'd be killer!" He bounced closer...and dropped a kiss on Wufei's lips.

Wufei froze.

Heero started laughing in disbelief as Matty pulled back with widening eyes.

"What are you _doing_?" Heero demanded, starting to laugh a little harder.

"I'm so sorry!" Matty whispered to Wufei, then looked around to Heero. "I'm so..."

"Don't worry about it," Heero reassured him, resting a hand briefly on Wufei's shoulder. "We're gonna get out of here," Heero added quietly to Wufei.

Wufei nodded, rubbing at his mouth.

Matty gave him an embarrassed smile, then turned and disappeared from the apartment.

"You can't tell me the eagerness isn't fun," Heero noted as he moved out the door. "You gotta _love_ the eagerness."

Wufei flashed him a smirk as he moved from the apartment, then turned to the sink. He didn't mean anything against the kid, of course...but he washed his mouth off anyway.

- -

Duo stopped talking as he looked to the entrance of Pandora's. Trowa was moving with Timothy behind a matre d'. Duo's focus on him caught Trowa's attention, then Quatre's and Tim's. They all blinked at each other blankly before grinning wickedly.

"Tsuyo," they heard Heero muttering. "For two."

Trowa turned back toward the exit as Tim shifted...and noted that Matt was standing near Heero at the entrance, giving them skeptical looks.

"Wow," Quatre muttered blankly.

"Yeah, wow," Duo agreed, rising to his feet and indicating the table to the man leading Trowa.

"Uh..." the guy looked confused.

"Just come on," Duo ordered as Quatre started moving around. Duo'd asked for a larger table so he and Quatre had more privacy, and that would serve two purposes now. He pulled his phone out as his lover moved around, and dialed Wufei.

Trowa and Tim moved over to the booth, giving Duo a look.

"What?" Duo protested. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"We were hitting a fine-dining establishment," Trowa retorted, letting Timothy slide in first. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I was going to be on a date," Duo retorted. "Hey, Ian," he added happily. "Get something nice on and come down here."

"I told you I'm fine," Wufei protested. "I don't want to be a third wheel or anything."

"Seriously, hop on the band wagon," Duo noted, gesturing for Matt to hurry up and join them as Heero followed him and the matre d' looked flustered. "Your idiot roommates all made reservations here and we have room for two more at the table. I figure with your ego, that should be about the right size."

Wufei guffawed at that. "You're serious? You're not just doing this out of pity or something?"

Duo passed the phone to Heero. "Nice hat."

Heero smirked at him. "Hello? Ian? Oh, hey...what's up? Yeah! Yeah! Come down! Hurry...we're going to be expecting one more," Heero added to the man as he sat. "What do you want to eat?"

"You get drinks first, genius," Trowa noted, snatching the phone away. "Why didn't you tell me they were all coming here?"

"This is Becky," the matre d' noted as a woman moved happily up beside him. "She'll be your waitress for the evening..."

"You lot look like trouble," she noted, looking them all over skeptically and focusing on Heero a moment. "What can I start you with?"

"Your number, so when our friend shows up we can give it to him," Heero returned happily.

She gave him an amused look.

He laughed. "Or just a black opal...you?" he added to Matty.

"Mm, I think I'll have something sweet—I don't care what, really."

The woman smiled at that and looked to Trowa as Quatre took the phone.

"So you're coming, right?" Quatre asked quickly in French. "Our waitress is just your type."

"Easy?" Wufei asked wickedly.

"I'm assuming," Quatre noted just as wickedly. "Oh...um, I want a seven and seven..." he said in English, then switched back to French. "Want us to butter her up for you?"

Wufei laughed wickedly—Quatre could tell he was moving quickly. "I can get her as worked up as I need, Quatre...just don't let Tim or Trowa get her first."

Quatre laughed wickedly and met eyes with Trowa—and closed the phone, tucking back into Duo's pocket.

"Ooh," Duo muttered, shifting slightly where he sat. "Watch where you put your hands, we're not in private."

"If I cared about that," Quatre noted, looking around to him, "we'd never leave the house."

Duo laughed wickedly—and the waitress cleared her throat. "Oh, sorry...I'll have a black opal...and can we get a cherry-sweet for our friend?"

"A cherry sweet?" she echoed, blinking at him.

"Hers is popped," Heero muttered in French.

Matty gave him a curious look as Trowa started laughing, covering his face.

The woman looked to Heero levelly a long moment, then nodded at Duo and turned away.

"Don't run her off," Quatre hissed, kicking at Heero. "I already told Wufei about her."

Heero laughed even more, looking around to Matty...and evidently decided that kissing him was a much more interesting option.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

"You're awfully calm about this," Tim muttered irritably, pacing across the apartment to look down at the parking lot. He fingered his lip a moment, then turned and paced back to where Trowa was finishing his supper. "How are you so calm about this?"

"Because this party isn't for me, it's for you," Trowa flashed him a smirk. He'd said it before, and Tim didn't seem to appreciate the humor of it.

The thing about it all was that Trowa _meant_ it. _He_ didn't care if the sots all thought him a raving lunatic—actually, it made for some pretty amusing exchanges. The dumbasses were scared of him though, to varying degrees, and since he'd gotten back from space, they'd been repeatedly interrupting any conversations that Trowa was having with the guy.

He had to admit that the interruptions were timely. There was an amusement to getting in Tim's face, in eyeing him. They were little stunts of mannerism that Heero threw around when he got in his moods. Timothy wasn't put off by them at all—granted, he'd never said if he was straight or bi—he didn't seem to _care_. Half the time he thought the moves were funny. That just always happened to be when someone like Anthony would come into the break room, or someone else would need a word in his office.

So, the party in the penthouse...s...penthouses, meeting the roommates, being reassured that Trowa was merely an asshole...all of it was so the others would lay off Tim.

Saying it in a joking manner had been the only way Trowa knew to approach the subject. The former pilot wasn't sure how much of himself Tim actually got...if Tim realized how staccato his emotions were. Though really, he conceded to himself, when he was with his friends it was happiness and fun.

He crammed the last bite into his mouth, then looked around as the house phone rang.

"Yeah?" Quatre asked, moving from the laundry room—the phone was on the wall near that door. "Oh, hey, Sean. You saw a car pull in? All right, thank you." He set the receiver back on its cradle and nodded to Trowa before disappearing back into the laundry room.

"You speak a whole different language," Tim noted, studying Trowa's face.

"I speak several languages," Trowa retorted, moving around to rinse his plate. "All I heard there was English though."

Tim snorted. "Then what did he say?"

"He was just letting me know I was right," Trowa noted, looking up to his friend. "You could see as much."

"I saw him hang up the phone and nod at you, then disappear."

Trowa smirked at him. "That's all he did."

Timothy gave him a mildly disgusted look, then seemed to connect what Quatre had said with reality. He darted across the living room to look out the window anxiously. "I don't see them."

"They're parking in the parking-garage," Trowa reminded him. "On the ground floor. That means there's this big hunk of cement," he measured a good two feet between his hands for example, "in the way of your vision."

Timothy gave him another look.

Trowa laughed, drying his hands off and turning to the pantry. "Let's get the rest of the crap over there."

"Why aren't we having the party in here?" Tim muttered, moving up to take the extra bags of chips Trowa'd bought. "You live on this side mainly."

"Yeah," Trowa noted, moving back toward the sleeping area. "Half of this side is a bedroom, the furnishings are meant for _our_ comfort, and everyone will want to go up to the gym. This is our sanctuary," he grinned over his shoulder at his friend. "Besides, the new place needs a welcome-home party."

Tim closed his eyes briefly as he followed the other. He had a feeling that for all the explanation Trowa'd come up with, the reason was as simple as that.

"They coming?" Heero asked, moving from his personal room.

"Sean called and said that someone was pulling in," Trowa agreed, setting the jar of salsa he'd been holding on the counter.

"All right," Heero disappeared again.

"So if I run away and hide," Quatre noted happily, bouncing into the kitchen with them, "don't follow me."

"You'll be pulling Duo off to a corner for a little play time?" Tim asked happily, pouring his chips into a bowl.

Quatre snorted. "I wish. Duo's a partier to his soul and won't want to wander off until things start to quiet."

Tim looked up at him blankly. "You don't seem that antisocial."

Quatre blinked back at him just as blankly.

Trowa had to blink a few times himself before he looked to his friend. "Oh..." he muttered. "Oh...we haven't talked about it at all, have we?"

"What?" Tim asked, looking back to Trowa.

"Wow," Trowa blinked to Quatre. "We haven't even talked about Heero."

"That's strange," Quatre noted, thinking back over the time Timothy had been around. "Does he not _know?_"

"That's what I'm wondering," Trowa agreed. "We may not have said anything about it, because we all _know_ it."

"Stop talking like I'm not here," Tim retorted, turning to the fridge to pull the pitcher of juice they'd made out. "Explain it to me."

"I'm a space heart," Quatre shrugged.

Tim stopped completely, raising his eyes to look at Quatre. If he didn't half-suspect it was true, he'd have guffawed and told them to drop the jokes.

Quatre scratched at his dark hair as he considered the man, then looked almost uncomfortably to Trowa.

"It _is_ real," Trowa said almost irritably. He set the jar down and gave Tim the same sort of annoyed look. "Not only is it real, but Quatre knows how to use it—at least better than most. You're gonna stand here and not-believe us? I may bullshit, but I wouldn't pull _this_ sort of joke."

An uncomfortable sensation of guilt, embarrassment, and contrite acceptance flowed from the man as he looked up and met Trowa's eyes.

"Love-sick," Quatre piped happily, turning to bounce away as Trowa looked to him sharply. He stopped, realizing how that had sounded and snickered, turning back to them. "I make _that_ sort of joke without thinking about it," he noted, grinning at the man. "You're acting like it, but it's not...really...love sick." He grinned at the pair and bounced back to find Duo.

Trowa studied the hall before looking back to Tim.

Tim shifted uncomfortably back a step, not meeting Trowa's eyes.

"You never did say if you were bi or straight," Trowa noted thoughtfully. He shrugged after a moment and turned back to the counter, pulling open a package of cups. "You done with that? We only have about a minute before they're up here."

Tim watched him warily a moment, realizing that the guy had moved on.

That was strange.

"I hear the elevator!" Wufei called, moving from his personal room. "Ready to be un-imaginary?" he added down the hall.

"Your words cause me physical pain," Matt noted as he moved from his and Heero's room. "You realize that, don't you?"

Wufei smiled almost proudly at him, then bounced over to take a cup from Trowa and start pouring juice.

"If any of them ask," Trowa informed the boy happily, "we bought you from Zanzibar."

Matt changed focus from Wufei to him, disbelief clearly written on his face.

"I bought you for Max," Trowa went on sweetly, dipping a chip in the salsa. "He wanted a new boy-toy because his old one wore out—or started looking legal."

Heero moved from the room, leveling Trowa with a dirty look.

It actually made Trowa mildly uncomfortable. He forced his grin a bit more, munching happily on more chips.

There was a knock on the door.

"You know you aren't funny," Heero said in a low voice. "Why do you try?"

"Because that was funny," Trowa retorted. "He's just so..." he met Matt's eyes and realized how demeaning the conversation was. He smiled at the boy, "Male," he decided, moving around the end of the counter. "That's gotta be what it is."

"_What?_" Matt demanded in disbelief, staring at Trowa.

"I watch the little girls your age avidly," Trowa retorted, moving past him. "Think of how much fun it'd be if they decided to play with me...but you're a boy, and I think I might have some weird homophobic shit going on."

"You've lived with me for _years_," Heero protested that in confusion.

"You and Duo both," Trowa agreed happily. "But you don't look twice at me, do you?"

"Oh, I've looked," Duo reassured him with a wicked grin. "Believe me, I've looked."

Trowa focused as Wufei pulled the door open, noting that Duo'd gotten the last word. That was okay, though, because he didn't want to _think_ about them looking at _him_ like that. He had no comeback.

"Hey, Travis," he greeted the man. "Welcome to my place..."

"I knew you weren't full of shit," the man returned happily, tossing a small bag into Trowa's hands. "Though..._two_...penthouses? Seriously?"

Trowa flashed him a grin, appreciating that. "We want the whole upper floor, but we're not up to booting out the neighbors."

The man gave him a look that suggested he didn't know if it was a joke.

Wufei shrugged happily, moving back to the bowl of chips. "I don't think they'd let us buy them out anyway...come in, come in...get something to eat, something to drink. We can turn the tv on," he gestured to the big-screen Heero'd decided to buy. It was a good five feet square, and about an inch thick. They'd mounted it on the wall where the former entertainment system had been. It was a new and stupidly expensive brand. Trowa didn't follow the releases, but he'd heard enough to know that the tv was sought after in all quarters—something about the sound system and a special screen.

"I know it's small," Heero said, frowning at the thing, "but it had to fit between the windows," he indicated the things as the man stared at him. "I didn't measure, either."

"Well..." the guy returned, obviously confused. "Um..."

"Come on," Trowa said happily. "We can put a movie on or something until people _really_ get here."

- -

The apartment was well full before Anthony made his appearance. The various people who'd shown up had settled on a boxing match, and were ooing and awing over the blows—and Trowa had to admit the tv almost made it look like they were _at_ the match.

They'd left the door open after enough people had entered that the apartment was warm, and then they'd been accosted by their neighbors who were mildly offended that they hadn't been invited.

Overall, there were probably twice as many people as Trowa had expected, but Tim looked ten times less stressed than he had been, and that had to count for something, right?

"Rigel."

Trowa turned to blink at Anthony, then grinned widely at him as he offered his hand. "I was almost thinking you weren't coming."

"I wasn't going to until Bill called and noted that Kim was already here," the man noted raising an eyebrow as he looked to the tv. "That yours?"

"No, it's Max's," Trowa indicated Heero. "I don't pay much attention to electronics. "You want something to drink? Ooh," he blinked at the counter. "I'll have to get more chips in a minute."

"You really live here?" Anthony demanded, looking the place over. "It's not much like I remember you describing. I thought you said it was vaulted."

"Oh," Trowa flashed him a wicked grin. "I didn't mention it...this is new. We only started buying it at the end of January."

"You've always said you lived in a..."

"_This_ one is new," Trowa cut him off, then indicated the hall. "The old one is over there...let me introduce you to my roommates, then I'll show you when I'm getting more snacks."

"Hey," Quatre chirped happily, bouncing out of the woodwork with bright eyes. "We totally need more drinks...should I run or should we send someone?"

"Oh, hey," Trowa shifted back slightly. "Jase, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is Jason Wire."

Anthony focused sharply on Quatre's eyes as he offered his hand.

"Nice to meet you," Quatre muttered. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd bother showing up at all—so what do you think? Me or a concierge?"

"If you wanna get out of here, that's fine," Trowa reassured him.

Anthony gave them a confused look.

"I'm a space-heart," Quatre shrugged, then looked back to Trowa, starting to open his mouth.

"On earth?" Anthony demanded skeptically.

"I was born on D17622," Quatre retorted, giving him a skeptical look. "If you don't believe me, just think a second. We're buying _two_ penthouses."

Anthony stared at him.

Quatre gave the man an almost disgusted look and focused back on Trowa. "Okay, that means I am going. I'll be back...anything special?"

"More 'I don't give a shit' with your breakfast cereal," Trowa returned, grinning at him.

Quatre grinned back at that and looked to Anthony, offering his hand again. "I'm sorry. I should have held my tongue. Excuse me," he nodded to him, then looked around the room—spotting Duo, Trowa realized.

"He's been...going through some changes," Trowa noted happily to Anthony, who looked a bit confused. "He got over himself a few months back and ever since then he pops off at...interesting...times."

"If you don't want me..."

"Please, Anthony," Trowa cut him off with the suave sort of charm Quatre could pull out his ass at the drop of a dime. "This party is _for_ you...and him," he pointed at Tim, who looked up and spotted them, bouncing to his feet with a happy smile. "Don't let something as little as a temper tantrum chase you away...Max! Max, you remember Anthony, don't you?"

- -

"I'm sorry," Sally muttered tiredly to Lucretzia, rubbing her temple. "I don't know what it was. It was a strange anomaly..."

"Didn't you just repeat yourself?" Lu asked skeptically.

Sally raised her eyes to the screen skeptically.

"Sorry," the dark haired female muttered, grinning at the other. "I was just asking."

"Just watch the colony," Sally retorted, rolling her eyes. "It might have been a communication, which means something might come at you from behind."

"All right, all right," Lu returned in an almost reassuring tone. "I'll watch my ass."

"You have plenty of other people watching your ass," Sally retorted, meeting eyes through the camera. "You need to watch your back and the colony at the same time. Can you do that?"

Before she could answer, the woman cut the line. Lu snorted slightly as she tucked her hair behind her ear, then blinked at the flashing red light that meant she had an incoming message. It was too soon to be Sally, so...

She hit the button.

"Lu," Marsh muttered, looking her over. His expression was suppressed surprise. "I wasn't expecting you out here...you seem...well."

"Only friends call me Lu, Gerrange," she snapped back. "What do you want?"

"As one friend to another," he started, his expression skeptical.

"You're hardly my friend."

"Because _one_ ship?" he retorted. "I don't understand how..."

"_Actually_," Lucretzia cut him off, "it's more because my _boyfriend_."

He fell silent.

"Yeah," she smiled slightly at the screen. "Something about your men knocking him out with the butt of a fucking firearm and hauling him off in an SUV. Then something about calling one of my dearest friends for the ransom."

"I didn't ransom him," the man snapped.

"You wanted something for her to get him back," Lu noted pointedly. "That's ransom"

"What are you doing here?" the man asked with a sigh, starting to rub his face. "Aren't you too close to the situation? Don't they enforce the rules about this shit?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Lu noted pointedly. "I'd only be called into question if it was someone I loved."

He frowned at her a long moment. "Fine. I'll give you my warning then. If the barricade hasn't been removed from around this colony within the next hour, then we're going to attack it."

"And you know very well that we'll do no such thing," she pointed out.

"I'm warning you, Lu. Get out of there. I don't want you getting hurt because of this."

"Then surrender," she replied smoothly.

"Lu, come on," he protested in a more cajoling tone. "You know you're as dear to me as..."

"Then _surrender_," she repeated darkly.

Marsh's eyes narrowed at her and he shook his head. "So glad to talk with you, too."

"Just remember," she noted, "you do me one, I do you one. You took my man...and I _will_ return that favor."

"It wasn't personal," the man snapped.

"Maybe not at first—but you did it, and that _made_ this personal. That's not even mentioning how unhappy I am about your supposed prisoners of war. Actually, I consider Williams a friend."

"Williams?" he stared at her in confusion. "Who..." he blinked, looking away a moment. "That boy Ranger was obsessed with?" he snorted, then rolled his eyes. "It wasn't under my orders that he got hurt."

"But it _was_ under your watch," Noin pointed out. "And that's all the blame any leader needs."

He shifted back slightly, blinking at her.

"So do me a favor," she muttered, reaching over to set her hand on the line button. "Surrender already."

"Why don't you?" the man returned in an almost evil voice, then turned his head toward the room behind him. "Send out the hounds."

"Oh, Marshal," Lu breathed, leaning forward to be directly in front of her camera, "breaking your word won't hold you in very high standing now, will it?"

He turned to sneer at her...and cut the line.

A door began opening in the side of the colony.

"Be ready," she snapped to her men as she watched that. "He threatened us to leave within the hour or he'd do this..."

"Some hour," her second noted. "I'm calling backup."

"You haven't yet?" Lu snapped back. "Everyone...be ready!"

- -

Heero turned as a sharp beeping sound came from the screen. It made the people in the room shudder and jump, but he knew he wasn't alone in stepping closer to the thing.

"What is that?" Tim demanded skeptically.

"Shit," Trowa muttered.

"Turn it down..." someone else started as words flashed on the screen. "What sort of...military HQ?"

Before anything else could be said, the screen flashed over to a man in uniform, his expression set. "This is a general military call," he said evenly. "This call has been ordered directly from General Une. The rebels of A02227 have attacked the containing line in force."

Heero stepped closer as the other people in the room stared at the screen in blank confusion.

"One Lucretzia Noin has been critically injured."

Matty gasped.

"General Une is sending a request for military aid."

"Understood," Duo said evenly from where he was sitting—he was on the couch.

"Very well," the man looked the room over. "Are you having a _party?_"

"You're the one who tapped our tv," Duo returned evenly. "We'd have taken it in private if given the choice."

The man looked around until he focused on the American, his expression skeptical.

"I'd love to leave you with the pleasantries," Duo added, rising to his feet with the remote in his hand, "but that would be tacky. Let Une know we'll arrive tomorrow evening."

"Une is requesting immediate aid," the man noted, raising a post-it note from in front of him and looking back to the camera. "Immediate."

"I understand," Duo said quietly, looking around to Quatre.

"I understand," Quatre agreed quietly.

"I understand," Trowa said in a level voice.

"I...I understand," Wufei muttered, clear enough to be distinguished from the group.

"I...understand," Heero agreed, looking to the others.

Immediate—how long had it been since they'd had an immediate summons?

"I can't say the rest of this with civilians," the man added, pursing his lips.

"This call should have been directed first to our private line," Duo said levelly. "The mistake was yours, and you'll be properly chastised."

The man flinched at that and nodded, setting the post-it down again. "Please return this call in a private manner."

"I will," Duo agreed levelly, taking a step.

The line cut, flashing back to the fight in time for a spectacular knock-out punch.

No one was watching the fight anymore, though, they were all watching Duo as he moved from the room—then looked around to Trowa.

Trowa laughed his slightly empty laugh. "So, who wants more punch?"

"What was..." Anthony started.

"That was a full-on militaristic summons," one of the other men in the crowd noted, looking around the room at the five of them. "For who?"

"For all of us," Trowa returned in amusement. "My roommates and I."

"Have you been doing stuff for the _military?_" Bill asked in disbelief. "_That's_ why you've been missing so much work?"

Heero met slightly wide eyes with Duo as the man headed toward their personal apartment. The disbelief was clear in his eyes, too. Lu was hurt and Une wanted them immediately—that was bad. That meant things were going _very_ bad.

"So..." Trowa said quietly, moving to stand in front of the tv. "I hope you'll all understand...why...I have to ask you to leave."

"You really are from the military...how are you active and working at the same time? What was it saying about...27?"

"27 is the colony that Relena Darlian was advocating for," Anthony noted, rising to his feet. "The one she suddenly stopped supporting."

"We don't have the clearance to discuss the matter," Trowa said evenly. "You'll understand that the very phrasing of the message we were given is classified. We cannot explain anything that was just said to you...and we have to leave."

The group started muttering as they looked to each other in confusion.

"All right already," Wufei snapped, rising up himself. "Get out."

As rude as that was, the people started milling for the exit.

That was just wonderful. At least they hadn't gotten out the alcohol.

"I cannot believe the idiot didn't code the call anymore than the alarm," Quatre noted darkly as he moved to Heero's side. "At least he had enough sense not to announce who the message was for."

Heero nodded, shaking hands with people who were leaving.

"I'm gonna go get packed and call my boss," the raven-haired male muttered, starting around Heero to the hall. "God...I hope Lu is okay."

- -

"I need to stop by my dad's," Matty muttered, moving forward and grabbing Heero's wrist. "Can we stop?"

"We're taking one car," Heero returned, licking his lips.

"I guess they'll give you the benefit of the doubt now," Tim was muttering glumly to Trowa as they moved to the exit. "That's wonderful."

"I'll give you a hundred dollars right now if you agree to clean the apartment," Trowa returned, digging out his wallet.

"You're not even going to say anything?" Tim protested, looking almost scandalized.

"There's not much to say," Trowa returned, shrugging. "Since we busted into the colony to get Helen," he indicated Matty over his shoulder, "we're part of it whether we give a shit or not."

Timothy looked around to Matty, his eyes considerate.

"We have the clearance for you to come, if you're so inclined," Duo informed the man casually.

Trowa swiveled his head around to look at the American sourly.

"Really?" Tim asked, looking to Duo with interest.

"Significant others are allowed," the man explained with a casual shrug.

Trowa rolled his eyes. "I didn't know you were that open," he noted to Quatre, who was moving from the laundry room.

Duo gave him a sour look of his own.

"What?" Quatre asked, giving him a confused look.

"The threesome with Duo and Tim," Trowa explained.

"Ass," Wufei snapped as Quatre's cheeks flared and he looked around almost helplessly. The Chinese man shoved Trowa away a step, shaking his head to Quatre. "He's an idiot, don't even try to make his joke."

Quatre licked his lips almost nervously, glancing at Duo.

Heero wondered what that was supposed to mean. Wufei stepping in had given Quatre a moment to gather himself before blushing even worse than he had been—that was nice of Wufei—but his comments?

"That's why I get to come?" Matty asked, looking up to Heero in confusion. "I just thought..."

"Une specified that intimates could be brought along," Duo noted, also having recovered himself. He turned away from the group, heading back to the bedroom area. "You really can come," he added to Tim. "You've been around here often enough that I wouldn't have to piss Quatre off by claiming you as my lover so they'd sign off."

"You're a prick," Tim returned evenly. "And I have a job."

"Funny, so do I," Duo noted, tilting his head slightly before disappearing.

"I hope Lu is okay," Quatre muttered, leaning against the counter.

That would be what had Duo on the edge—and adding in his relationship with Quatre probably made things hard for him. He was used to having one emotional attachment at a time, but things between he and Lucretzia were never as straightforward as 'friends.'

"So, money?" Trowa pressed, waving a bill under the man's nose. "If not, we have to call the concierge crap."

Tim snatched the money, giving him a glum look.

"The code for the alarm is 2915," Heero noted quickly. "I'll set your phone to disarming it, but in case you don't have it on you or something...try to keep it on you. We'll keep you updated. I'll be using the military's computers and what have you, so I'll send you an update to pan when I get a chance."

"Pan?" the man asked, obviously thinking about it.

"The patch we put on your phone last time we headed to space," Heero returned with a grin. "I think you said more or less the same thing then."

The guy grinned, then looked around the apartment and sighed. "If half of what you told me was right, you could get killed."

"Could trip over our shoelaces and fall into traffic just as easy," Duo informed him happily, moving from the room again while settling his duffel bag against his hip again. "Ready?"

"You sure you don't want to come?" Trowa asked Tim easily. "I could use your bullshit."

"While running around training special-ops hopefuls?" Duo demanded. "You wouldn't have time for him, and you'd be so..._dignified_...you wouldn't notice a _civilian_."

"At least I wouldn't be hitting on soldiers in full-regalia," Trowa snapped back, glaring at him. "Can you take your aggravation out on someone else, please?"

Duo's mouth snapped shut as he stared at the other.

Trowa considered the others in the group, and realized why he was receiving the active end of the American's displeasure. His and Quatre's relationship was almost like a new flesh-wound, still tender. Wufei was starting to act more himself again, but his emotions had been scoured after they'd visited the L-5 memorial to his colony...and Heero wouldn't understand Duo's temper. There was never a question of Matty being that person...and that left Trowa, and Timothy.

"If you asked me a week ago, you might talk me into it," Tim noted, leading the way into the hall. "As it is, my heart is thundering in my chest because an immediate summons means that something went bad...I don't want another war," he met Trowa's eyes a long moment, then turned the earnest gaze onto the others. "I don't understand enough about the eve-wars, and in all likelihood, this is some continuation for that."

Trowa sighed, moving to stand against the back of the elevator as the others joined them.

"This will not come to war," Heero said firmly. "But we can't talk about it now," he added as Wufei locked the apartment. He looked sadly to the pair of doors, then shook his head and moved to follow the others. "I know everyone at work will be trying to pump you for information," he added as they packed into the machine. "But pretend that all you knew is that we were war-ricks, and then what they heard."

"Isn't that all I knew anyway?" the man asked skeptically.

"You know all about Troy," Duo reminded him. "And all about...the Trojan horse," he cast an amused look to the others. "Rather blond, that horse. Do you think I should break his nose?"

"Trojan..." Tim blinked as he thought about that, then evidently connected the blond comment to Zechs Marquise. He ran a hand down his face.

Heero grinned at that. "There are other things you know about us that you need to pretend you don't," he focused on the elevator door as it dinged their arrival on ground-level. "I think things will start leaking to the news any day now, so you should get a decent progress-report on our doings as soon as they realize we're around."

Tim nodded, biting his lip.

"Yo, Allen," Trowa added happily to the doorman as they exited. "We're off on another travel-stint. Space needs us," he posed, then snickered. "I need you to make him a copy of our apartment key," he added in a serious tone, grabbing the notepad in front of the man. "He can come in and out as much as he wants—but no parties," he looked to Tim with a brief grin. "I'm not sure when I'll be back...and because some of you may be uncomfortable...I say no more than three guests with him," he jotted something else on the sheet and signed it, sliding it down the line. "Right?" he asked as Heero signed.

"Sure," Duo muttered, taking the pen himself. "Witness," he added to the startled doorman. "If we have need of delegation, Timothy will be put in charge, funding and the like. Right?"

The man nodded slowly as Quatre signed as well, then Wufei.

"Sign this," he added, flipping the paper over and shoving it at Timothy.

"Take care," Timothy instructed as he set the pen down, extending his hand to Trowa. "Really."

Trowa pulled him into a brief hug, then stepped back and obviously thought a moment. "I'll have...more paperwork for you in the next day or so," he noted quietly, starting away. "You'll be a benefactor of my estate."

Timothy's jaw dropped.

"I'll also mark you next-of-kin," Trowa added, stopping in the door a brief moment...then disappeared.

"Forlorn lover..." Quatre cooed, then snickered and hugged Timothy. "Or something."

Timothy mouthed at him as Heero took the former-blonde's place, then Matty and Duo.

"Take care," Quatre said in a sincere tone, then followed Trowa from the foyer.

Wufei pulled back from his hug, noting that the others had already darted. "If you look in his closet, he has a file-case," he noted, grinning more. "His bank statements are in there—you can see how much you'll inherit if he croaks," he winked at the man, winked at the doorman, then turned to follow the others.

It was time to go.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

Jaden ran his hands along his arms, trying to lower the goose-flesh that had risen along them. The dead-silence of space was enough to drive any man mad, and the forced radio-silence of he and his group made things no easier.

Rab was a fool. Jaden'd known it for years, but he'd been a wonderful drinking-buddy. Someone to get drunk with and play a hand of poker...or billiards. The dart-games had cinched it for him. He'd been present at far too many gatherings before they'd all moved out to 27. If he'd balked, they'd have suspected him of betrayal, and he'd seen what some of the men had done to someone they'd thought betrayed them.

So they'd rallied on 27, and the sect that had tried to insist on proper protocol had been shouted down, forced into docility...and this was how it was ending.

The first protests about escaping 27—Rab's well-laid plans had backfired so many times, Jaden didn't comprehend how anyone would follow _more_ of them—but the first protest about abandoning the damned colony had been met with the note that they didn't have enough MS, let alone enough _armed_ MS... At least Rab hadn't been willing to leave a man behind who still wanted to follow.

It was strange to think of how many men had remained behind on the colony itself, and how many had agreed to make the final foray before giving him.

How many of those men had _died?_

Jaden rubbed at his arms again, then raised his hand to his neck. He'd had dog-tags once. He'd had them until that boy had taken his Kevlar jacket.

The man snorted to himself, shaking thoughts of the brat from his head. The idea of hostages hadn't appealed to him from the beginning when they could have probably gained sympathy from people like Darlian to begin with, if they'd approached the matter from the legal stand-point. Ranger losing his head over the boy and his phone...his damned phone.

The patch hadn't been the Chronus patch like so many people had tried to insist. There was no hint of that addition to the boy's phone when he'd gone back to look himself...

Jaden shook his head again, wondering where Ranger _was_. They had a rendezvous site on earth if the next stage of this plan actually made it to action. The Preventers had all sorts of monitoring systems, but a hacker in the right place could scramble the code...but drifting like so much space-dust with the earth an enormous marble below him wasn't appealing.

He checked his positioning again—that was the only monitoring device they were allowed to keep running. Entering the earth's atmosphere could turn deadly.

"Ho," Qingfu said in a quiet tone. "Atmosphere shields to position."

Jaden closed his eyes, then powered up his machine. Points of position flared to life all around him as everyone in the unit did as well, unfurling the heat-guard and praying that the material did as it was supposed to do and covered the machines from head to foot.

"Stand ready," Qingfu added, his voice still low. If he was half the hacker he was said to be, this would work—if he wasn't, they could be traced and hunted down like so many rabbits.

"Steady," Rab muttered, his own voice tense. "The rear-guard should disengage in moments."

Jaden closed his eyes again, waiting.

This could end badly...what if their rearguard couldn't disengage? They'd be sacrifices to Rabid Marsh's cause. They'd be the martyrs used to hearten the men and add new recruits—more kindle to add to the fire.

The Preventers were just as bad of fools as Marsh was, all-told. The Preventers had it in them to become the next Oz, and their leader...one Lady Une...she'd been second to Treize Kushrenada himself—the man's fool-_child_ had raised a rebellion...what would his second in command do with as much power as the man himself and all the military might?

No, things couldn't remain as they stood—but there _had_ to be other ways...there were far too many like Ranger who'd seize the reins of power...and Ranger was a man who shouldn't have been trained to torture, let alone be given any real power.

Deroy needed his head examined.

"Steady..." Rab's voice held an edge of anxiety.

Marsh's head needed examined...hell, his _own_ head needed to be examined for _joining_ a rebel group too fool to attempt anything at all remotely legal...

"They're down!" Qingfu exulted...and instantly booted his machine into gear.

Jaden took off as well, not giving himself time to hesitate.

If the atmosphere shields didn't work...well...he wouldn't have to find a way out of this mess.

- -

"The satellites are down!" Une was shouting as she flew down the aisle toward them. "The satellites were just blue-balled!"

Heero darted forward and yanked the laptop she had in her hands away from her. They'd arrived at the airport and had been hustled into a van. The van had broken most speed limits before the soldiers had politely shoved them into the building—with just enough time to hear an alarm go off.

"Williams," Une muttered, stopping long enough to smile at the boy—she also reached for his hair, but then someone was shouting demands at her about what the hell she thought she was doing.

Matty looked up to the woman in disbelief before looking around to Duo—Duo, though, simply moved up to one of the myriad consoles around the room and shoved the guy sitting at it out. There was a brief protest before the man actually _looked_ at Duo, then he fell silent and stepped back, looking around darkly.

Quatre flashed him a grin...and Trowa floated by to the console next to Duo. _That_ man had been watching Duo, so he saw Trowa in time to move.

"Shit," Heero snapped irritably, turning and looking around until they met eyes. "Hold this," Heero ordered...and deposited the machine into his arms.

Matty blinked, shifting the weight around to support it properly. He had to admit that watching Heero's fingers fly across the keys was amusing...and the notion that...

"_Brigadier_ General Yuy," Une shouted over the noise around them—at a woman, Matty realized, "has control of my console, and control of any thing he wants to _control_."

Be it beast or object, Matty agreed silently, flashing a wicked grin up at his lover. He certainly hadn't signed onto the journey to be a table, but with the sirens going off in the background and everyone scurrying around like ants in a kicked anthill, he doubted it was time to complain.

"You," Wufei snapped, moving around Heero to point at the man Duo'd routed. He snapped his fingers, pointing at Matty.

"I'm sorry!" the guy apologized to him, his eyes looking wild. "I'm sorry, sir!"

Matty wasn't entirely sure how the man did it—he hadn't let go of the laptop, but he was no longer holding it.

"Come here," Quatre suggested, tugging him to one side—there was a sturdy table set up there, one of the metal ones.

Matty wished he hadn't noticed that—those metal tables reminded him of Ranger.

"Sit here and be cute or something," Quatre suggested with a wink, then turned and darted across the room.

Well, that wasn't offensive or anything.

Matty snorted, shifting back to rest against a low half-wall behind him. There was a monitor on the table below, but with the way the soldier had apologized to him, he probably wouldn't be chastised until the alarms settled.

"Engage the alpha!" Heero roared across the room. "Engage it now damn it!"

Someone cursed from around the corner, and Matty looked around to see how the soldiers reacted.

Most of them were staring up at Heero with very wide eyes.

"Next round," Heero roared the command—he hadn't taken the time to find the person he was talking to. There was no way anyone in the building couldn't hear him shouting like that, so that meant whoever it was would do it. "Be ready!" Heero's fingers flew across the keys again. "_Now!_"

Matty looked to a large screen set up on one wall—the room was u shaped...and from where he'd been told to sit pretty, he could see that the back wall of that side was covered in a large mostly-blue screen. Lines and dots were moving on the thing.

"Beta!" Heero snarled. "Beta!"

Something else on the screen moved, and then a third one shifted promptly...and a fourth. Heero'd been about to shout again, but evidently the people had caught on to whatever pattern it was supposed to be. It didn't take long before the screen showed a lazy arch with several flashing points.

"You're not supposed to see that, civilian," a woman noted, standing in his line of sight. "And you shouldn't be sitting on that table."

"I was told to sit here," Matty returned, kicking his feet easily. The woman's tone and stance annoyed him, made him want to ignore her entirely.

"Who would..."

"That was annoying," Heero noted, turning to Matty without even seeming to notice the woman. He moved over next to Matty, setting the laptop he'd been holding down. "I have no idea how far that scramble will go before it's all set back to alignment—whoever did it is going to be fined for the fuel."

The woman's mouth dropped open.

"If I had any real idea what you did, I think I'd be impressed."

Heero sniggered, leaning down to kiss him.

"_Heero?_"

Heero's head snapped around to the woman, and his eyes were confused. Matty had a brief moment's jealousy, thinking this must have been one of Heero's conquests...before Heero's eyes absolutely _lit_ up.

"Hilde?" Heero demanded, stepping toward her in disbelief. "_Hilde?_"

"What?" Duo demanded, spinning around in his chair as Trowa's head also turned up. It took all of two seconds before Quatre returned...and then Wufei.

Matty hadn't even seen where Wufei'd disappeared to.

There was a laugh that almost seemed relieved as Heero pulled the girl into a hug...and two seconds later the others were all stepping in with disbelief clear in their tones—and delight in their greetings.

Matty narrowed his eyes at the woman.

"Is this that earth guy?" the woman demanded, turning to stare at him. "I'd _heard_ you were robbin' the cradle, Yuy, but...damn."

The last vestiges of Matty's good humor vanished. He sat up, sliding off the table.

"And I suppose _you'll_ call him a piece of ass, too, won't you?" Heero retorted irritably.

"I never said that," she noted, moving closer to smile at Matty properly and offer her hand. "I'm Hilde Schbleiker...you're Mattox Williams, correct?"

Matty frowned slightly and nodded—and realized that people that had been behind him were rising to their feet to look.

"No gawking!" Une snapped, moving around the group and gesturing irritably at the people. "You have work to do!"

Matty looked around to Heero—noting his confusion—then met eyes with Duo.

"How the hell do you know about Matt?" Duo demanded of the woman, moving up beside her with his arms loosely crossed.

She glanced up at him...then stopped and _looked_ at him. "You cut your hair."

Duo stared back at her as she moved up into his personal space, her arms snaking up around Duo to tangle in those strands—Matty severely hoped Quatre would bite her _head_ off.

"Uh..." Duo shifted back, raising his hands to disengage her. "I did cut it off, but um..."

"He's taken," Quatre said in a comfortable tone. There was no anger in it...not even his passive venom.

"What she doesn't know..." the woman started with a wicked smirk.

"By me," Quatre said levelly.

Hilde's arms dropped instantly as she looked at him.

"This is _so_ not the place for this discussion," Trowa broke in, moving between the three in a way that meant they had to separate. "Une, if you have tasks for us to perform, I suggest you give them to us now."

"I need you to come with me," she noted, meeting all of their eyes before turning to specifically add Matty.

"I'll...I'll come," Hilde noted, stepping forward.

"That won't be necessary, Schbleiker," Une returned. "I need you to finish _your_ task. The faster we get this all organized, the faster you lot can sit down and talk...Mattox?"

Matty wanted to dart to follow as the woman swept away without any further backwards glances. He wanted to worm his way between Quatre and Duo to stand between Heero and Wufei...but that woman...he cast a look back at her.

He could see in her expression—brown eyes, bright and sparkling...a slightly quirked bow of a mouth. _She_ thought he was just a _boy_, and he'd be damned if he confirmed that for her.

"I'm afraid I summoned you in haste," Une was muttering as they swept down a hall—the carpeting was beige, and the walls were all glass. In the distance, the reflected sunlight shone brightly through the building.

Matty wanted to look back and see the woman alone behind him—left behind...but thinking that made him realize he was being petty. The moment he'd first seen the woman, she'd bugged him. It was an irrational response, he was sure, but if he was already diving into pettiness, he wouldn't be able to help it at all.

"We'd thrown back the first few attacks when I summoned you," Une was explaining more. "And another was breaking through—Zechs is waiting to take you all to Noin. She's stabilized, but her machine was totaled, and her control-board tried to embed itself in her stomach."

The pettiness vanished entirely as Matty darted up to catch Heero's hand and stare at the general.

"She suffered some severe internal trauma, but we're fairly certain she'll recover..." her eyes looked sad a moment. "But I'm sure Zechs will tell you all about it on the way to the hospital. I would have sent you right on if you hadn't all taken over like that."

"You get this note of panic in your voice..." Duo sounded vaguely amused. "And that means that we need to fix it, _now_."

She turned a truly affectionate smile onto him, then directed it to Matty again. "How are you?"

"I'm...all right," he said uncertainly.

Heero squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"I'm glad...I'm sorry to take you away from work like this," she added, "but we have no idea where Hanager disappeared to, and the idea of him getting ahold of you again..." she shuddered.

Matty shuddered as well, leaning into Heero. He hadn't been led to believe they were _taking_ him with them...not in the way her words suggested. He'd thought the woman had simply allowed him to remain with Heero.

"The mention of that name is disturbing to Williams," Duo said quietly and firmly—Matty blinked back at him, but didn't get to meet eyes for it. "We'd prefer it to remain unsaid."

"Sorry," Une cast him an apologetic smile as they turned down another side-passage. "I'll tell everyone to hush—but you're the only person who had any extended contact with Gerrange."

"He came in and chased Ranger off from hurting me," Matty noted, raising his right hand to cover his left arm as the memory of the pain seared through his mind. He closed his left hand into a tight fist, then lowered both arms and refused to meet eyes. "I don't see that as being...extended."

"He actually spoke to you, and from the recording of the interview," she looked around to him, "he took pains to make you comfortable."

"I...um..." he looked around to his friends uncertainly.

"I'm sorry," Une shook her head hard. "I have far too many things on my mind right now...Zechs!"

The group slowed near an exit as the white-blond male swung out of a lobby area. He had dark rings under his eyes as he looked them all over, then smiled slightly. "Hey, fucker," he greeted Duo. "I can sleep, right? You'll let me..."

Duo moved to the man instantly, pulling him into a hug. It was a far cry from the last time the pair had been together. Before they'd headed back to earth, they were stabbing each other with words and attempting to sneak away to fight one another.

"I can't do this right now," Zechs hissed, rubbing hard at his eyes as he yanked away from Duo. "I just...I can't...I need to..."

"It's all right," Duo returned, his voice almost cold. The distance between them had firmed, and Zechs pressed his hands to his eyes. "Just take us to her."

"Watch him," Une whispered to Heero and Matty, grabbing Matty's hand briefly...then disappeared back down the hall.

"She said if you came," Zechs noted, looking tiredly to Matty, "that I'm supposed to carry you to her because your legs are too short."

Matty guffawed at that—he was pretty sure the comment had been made to help change the subject, and that was fine with him.

"Come on, we have a van waiting," Zechs turned and left without greeting any of the others.

"Is he okay?" Matty whispered to Heero, then met eyes with Trowa. "I know he's not _okay_," he clarified. "But..._will_ he be?"

"He's exhausted," Quatre noted, following through them to the door. "If what I gathered from Une is right, Lu hasn't been stable very long."

Duo rubbed hard at his eyes.

Matty looked back to Quatre briefly, but the former-blond had moved out the doors.

"Come on," Heero muttered quietly, catching Matty's hand again. "If you take too long he _will_ carry you."

"You seen Hilde?" Zechs asked, looking them all over. "With her pretty-girl hair," he indicated the sides of his head. "Makes me think of Relena with those braids she always wore."

"The look doesn't suit her," Duo conceded as the van started away.

"It's her eyebrows," Matty noted darkly. "They're far too bushy for her own good."

They all focused on him sharply.

Duo laughed a wickedly. "I don't know _why_ you don't like her, but your expression tells the tale...and she _is_ one of my dear friends, and you _will_ show her respect."

"Yes, Daddy," Matty retorted bitterly, looking away. "I'd never _dream_ of speaking bad of my elders."

Duo gave him a perplexed look.

"What's the matter?" Heero asked, catching his hand and trying to meet his eyes. "What happened?"

"I'm tired of being treated like a little boy and pet," he returned tiredly, rubbing his eyes. "I don't know _why_, but Une always touches my hair," he reached over and ruffled Trowa's hair like the woman would do to him. "She's done it since we first saw each other...and she always looks at me like..."

...like my mom used to.

Matty fell silent, then looked around to meet Quatre's eyes.

"I'm not going to read you unless you want me to," Quatre said quietly, studying his face. "At least...for now."

"What the hell happened to your hair?" Zechs asked into the silence that followed.

"I was walking down the street," Quatre explained seriously—and Zechs nodded, actually listening, "and there was this man...he was tarring a..."

Zechs gave him an absolutely disgusted look.

Quatre snickered, running his hands through his hair and shaking his head. "I'm just tired of people calling me blondie," he explained, making a sour face. "It just got old...so I fixed it as best I could."

"Oh," Zechs accepted that with aplomb. "I guess...Lu's gonna freak, isn't she?"

Quatre laughed lightly at that and shrugged.

"Call Tim," Wufei muttered, pulling his own phone out. "I need to call Jinli."

"It's five in the morning," Trowa retorted. "He doesn't wake up at five in the morning."

"He'll probably be grateful to know you made it safe," Wufei noted, glancing briefly up at Trowa, and his focused changed entirely. "Hey, Jin...it's me...yes, I am aware of the time, but I thought you might be interested to know where I _am_."

Trowa snorted.

"No! We haven't even been here a half hour...but a friend of ours is in the hospital, so we have to go make sure she's okay. I'm probably gonna be there a while. I don't know what we're going to be doing here now, though. Remind me to steal your phone later, huh? I'll let you get back to sleep, but we should meet up for lunch."

"Hey," Heero muttered, pulling Matty's hands up to his lips. "I don't think I understand why you're upset...but just know, I don't _care_ what anyone else thinks. I'm happy with you."

Matty smiled back at that, feeling suddenly shy and lowering his eyes.

"Damn, he actually _is_ cute," Trowa muttered in disbelief.

All eyes locked on him.

"I guess that _was_ my problem," he added, looking around wryly until he met Wufei's eyes. "How messed up is that?"

Matty...wasn't entirely sure how to take that...at all.

- -

Trowa was beyond special. Wufei studied his friend as he rose to his feet, watching as the other reached over and lifted Matty's chin again to study his face. It made Matty blush again, avoiding looking at Trowa without pulling away. It was strange to think Matty could _be_ bashful, but he was actually really good at it.

"His eyes are striking," Trowa muttered to no one in particular.

"Stop it," Quatre snapped, smacking Trowa's arm away. "You okay?" he added to Matty as the guy lowered his head again. "Matt?"

"I'm...all right..."

Quatre sighed slightly. That was all the response they could get from the kid.

Trowa hadn't said much more in the van, hadn't even looked at Matty, actually. When they'd first gotten in to see Lu, she'd had words for all of them...greetings, mostly. She'd been dismayed by Quatre's hair, but before that had settled, she'd been telling him how cute he looked...and while they'd been talking, Trowa's attention had landed on Matt again. After that, it seemed like every few minutes he was reaching over and raising Matty's chin to study something about his face.

Trowa started to move.

"Trowa," Wufei said brightly, startling the man. "Have you called Tim yet?"

The European male stared back at him a long moment before sighing and pulling out his phone. He rose slowly, and walked from the room.

'Thank you,' Matty mouthed to Wufei, meeting his eyes briefly before going back to his study of the floor. Heero, Duo, and Zechs were clustered around the head of the bed talking as Lu tried to stay awake to listen.

"I need to call...to call Jinli and make sure our plans are set," Wufei noted, meeting eyes briefly with Quatre as he moved into the hall. "I'm going to get breakfast," he added in a more serious tone. "Why don't you come with me?" he added to the teen.

Matty wasn't sure how to take that, but he did rise to his feet and move after. He moved to Wufei's far side as Wufei rounded Trowa, and nodded briefly at his friend.

"When he looks at me like that it makes my stomach flutter," Matty whispered, not looking at the guy as he moved quickly to keep up. "It's stupid."

"You never had real men interested in you?" Wufei asked curiously. He knew he himself had checked out females like that—he didn't _touch_ them as much as Trowa was, but there was a decided consideration in Trowa's eyes.

"Real men," Matty snorted. "Before I met you guys the only...real...men I knew were my dad's friends."

Wufei flashed him a grin. "And Heero doesn't do that to you?"

Matty snickered slightly. "Heero does...other things...but Trowa..." he shrugged.

"Unfortunately, Trowa is self-assured," Wufei grinned as he said it. "He's also well able to get what he wants from anyone, and having the focus of that considerable attention would make _me_ nervous, so I get where you're coming from. Don't worry, though, he won't go beyond propriety...we'll kick his ass if he does."

"That doesn't mean he won't," Matty retorted, then shook his head as they turned a corner, slowing. "And I don't think he _will_...it's just...he makes me shy, and then I feel stupid."

Wufei sniggered. "For what it counts, you are cute when shy. If you could master that," he ignored the dark look the boy directed up at him, "he'd probably get embarrassed himself."

"I can't even talk to you," Matty retorted, looking away in disbelief. "You've never been looked at like that by someone you admire."

Wufei flashed him a brief and wicked grin and shrugged. "I'm trying to be helpful, come on...I did have you come with me."

"You just wanted to help me get out of there, didn't you?" the teen protested, seeming to realize it for the first time.

"You need a minute to regain yourself without Trowa following along after." Wufei had thought it was obvious. "He doesn't mean anything by his stupidity."

"Fah," Matty retorted, tucking his hands into his pockets.

Wufei grinned down at him and pulled the phone from his pocket. "Keep sulking a few minutes, I really do need to call Jin."

Matty directed a severely dirty look at him.

Wufei smiled sweetly, and raised the phone to his ear.

- -

"Where...did Matty go?" Heero asked, looking around the room, then glancing into the hall. He could see Trowa out the door, but no one else.

"Wufei went to get breakfast," Quatre shrugged. "He took Matt with him. Come sit with me."

"I'm going to sleep," Zechs said tiredly to Duo, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "You'll stay with her? I only left her long enough to meet with you guys," he looked back to the woman tiredly. "I can't sleep in here."

"Go," Duo assured him. "I'll stay with her."

Zechs nodded, giving Duo a grateful look, then hesitated. "I know you care about her...as...as much as I do. I know you'll take care of her," he studied Duo a long moment. "Don't leave her."

"I know," Duo reassured him, looking sadly to the female on the bed.

Zechs patted his shoulder briefly, then looked to Quatre and nodded.

"Shouldn't you go talk to Duo?" Heero muttered as Zechs left the room to find a couch. "That makes me nervous to hear...nervous for you, I mean."

"I know the situation," Quatre reassured Heero. "I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Heero met his eyes, obviously interested.

"Trowa's been...studying...Matty," Quatre said quietly. "It makes Matty blush and look away. He hasn't said anything about it yet, but I think you'll need to have words with Trowa the next time he does it."

Heero frowned at that, glancing toward the door.

"I don't think Trowa even realizes what he's doing," Quatre shrugged. "You'll have to catch him doing it and scare him a little bit. I think if you're quiet too much longer, Matt might get upset with you."

"That's nicely convoluted," Heero returned dryly, looking around the room again. "What do you mean, studying? Why did you say it like that? Is that why he left?" he met eyes with Quatre.

Quatre was startled to feel irritation from his friend. With the way Heero'd been ignoring Trowa, Quatre'd thought he didn't understand the situation. "He went with Wufei...to get breakfast," the former blond noted quietly. "I think Trowa will do it at some point when you're watching without thinking about it, and you'll see exactly what I mean. I thought you didn't understand it...what do you think we'll do here in the colony?"

Heero stared at him blankly a long minute.

"Sorry," Quatre muttered with a grin. "The situation with Matty needed to be addressed, but that's an ongoing thing. Being here," he looked back to Lu, who was sleeping. "Being here is something else entirely."

Heero pursed his lips as he looked back to Lu as well, then shook his head. "After we eat, I'll head back to the base," he said quietly. "I want to strengthen the defenses as much as I can manage so that doesn't happen again. I think since the fighting was all but finished up here, after we see to her," he indicated Lu again, "we'll be able to go back down."

Quatre sighed and rose to his feet, moving across to the bed. The woman's pale skin was even paler than it had been. The steady beep of the heart monitor was reassuring and troubling at the same time...and seeing the tubes hooked to her face was disturbing.

Duo, who'd been studying her, raised his eyes to look at Quatre. He was holding one of her hands.

"Things are too complicated for us," Quatre noted quietly, looking back to the woman as he thought of Zechs' words. "We didn't need Hilde thrown back into the mix."

Duo laughed quietly, then looked around behind himself to find the chair Zechs had been using. "Don't remind me of _her_, Quatre...it's more than enough to have you _and_ Lu on hand."

Quatre smiled slightly at that, sighing as he moved around the bed. Trowa'd moved back into the room at some point, and was speaking quietly with Heero. He moved up behind Duo and wrapped his arms around the other's neck. "I only just got you, asshole," he whispered in the other's ear. "Don't let me lose you this fast."

"I'm not _that_ fickle," Duo returned, wrapping his free arm around Quatre's waist as best he could. "I'm yours, and I'll stay that way until you don't want me anymore."

"I trust you," Quatre returned, resting his cheek against Duo's hair as he looked to the wall. "I do."

"Then stop clinging to me like I'll disappear," Duo's tone was vaguely amused. "I will eventually pass out from lack of oxygen."

Quatre chirped quietly at that, releasing his hold on the other.

Duo sniggered pulling him to his side and closer. "I'd have told Zechs to stop being an asshole if he didn't look like he was walking a high-rope and trying not to fall off. That's why I didn't say anything to him. I think your insecurities will be the death of me yet—even if it is just because you pulled the trigger."

"Hey!" Quatre protested, meeting his eyes with a pout. "I'm not _that_ bad."

Duo sniggered...but didn't seem to want to argue.

Quatre huffed down at him a moment, then looked back to Lu. "I think you're the worst choice for a first love."

Duo made another amused noise, pulling him even closer. "I do love you."

Quatre met his eyes, smiling and looking away from those eyes. He felt shy.

Duo chuckled, squeezing him again and looking around the empty room. "Where did everyone go?"

- -

"I'm surrounded by imbeciles," Jinli snapped irritably as he shoved into the hotel room, yanking his jacket off. "Every last one of them are idiots!" He tossed the jacket into a chair with a vengeance.

"Hey, Jinli!" Matt greeted the man happily, looking him over with interest. "I wasn't expecting you here."

"Where is everyone?" Jinli returned, blinking around the empty space.

"Duo and Quatre are still at the hospital," Matty returned easily. "Trowa ran off to collect his little clones...and Heero went back to the base. I haven't seen Wufei since he went to meet you for lunch."

"Great," the man grumbled, moving to the fridge to stare at the lack of contents. "Is there a mini bar in here somewhere?"

"What's _wrong?_" Matt persisted, moving around to pull the cupboard open. He'd been _trying_ to put stuff away, but Heero'd sort of grabbed him from behind and his protest that he was putting the stuff away had been met with throwing everything in the cupboard.

"Why is..." the man started, then noticed Matty's expression. "Nevermind."

Matt sniggered, pulling the stuff out again. "Heero was in a rush," he noted, grinning sidelong at the guy.

The man rolled his eyes and accepted the can he was passed, moving to lean against the counter better. "I got fired."

Matty stopped completely, meeting the man's eyes in disbelief.

"When Wufei was staying with me," he explained, "we drank a lot. I ended up late and hungover a lot at work—somehow my boss didn't appreciate that," he grinned slightly, then sighed as he took a long drink. "I came in _two_ minutes late with Wufei behind me and the man started glaring at me. One of the other guys was supposed to be giving me some papers so I could write up a report, and that was a day late," he shook his head. "Some other guys were trying to say I told them I'd do a report for them over lunch today, and it all just got snarled up, and Finerar just fired me...yelled it on top of his voice."

Matt frowned at that, opening his own drink.

"So I had to go get my crap out of my cubicle with the security guards trying to chew me out for not going immediately. When they realized what I was doing they stopped claiming they'd charge me with trespassing, but they were just _watching_ me," he huffed. "You have a job?"

Matt blinked at that, then nodded. "I work at a hardware store in LA...selling carpets."

"You gotta get me in on that shit," the guy muttered tiredly. "I don't care how much I hate LA, I'm so tired of the colonies..." he took a long drink. "That's gotta be less stressful than paper pushing."

"You have to deal with people, you know," Matt returned, grinning at the man as he realized something.

They were speaking Chinese. The man had been since he'd come into the apartment...well, aside from 'imbecile' and 'idiot'.

The guy actually focused on him, studying his face. "I didn't know you could speak anything but English."

"So I look half-Thai to you?" Matt retorted. "I suppose my name is misleading, though, isn't it? My sister is Lifon...and my dad is Taofa."

"Where did Matty come from?" the man asked, blinking.

"Mattox," Matt retorted.

Jinli grinned at him, then looked around. "Sorry...I didn't mean to be rude."

Matty shrugged. "At least you're not all obsessed about how young I am," he noted, tossing stuff back into the cupboard irritably. "Everyone else is all demanding if Heero checked my ID before we screwed."

"That's harsh," Jinli noted, grabbing the twelve-pack. "Did he?"

"Yes," Matty retorted as the man slid the pack into the fridge. "That's the part that really annoys me. He was all dark temptation at the frickin' store, but as soon as I got into his car after work he wanted to look."

"In the store?" Jinli asked, meeting his eyes with interest. "Run that by me again in English?"

Matty blinked as he considered what language he'd been speaking—it _had_ been English. The grin the man gave him was innocent enough to make him roll his eyes. "I met them when they were getting a carpet for their apartment—that's where we met. I was helping them with the order."

The man laughed, taking another drink as he moved around toward the living room. "So you really _do_ have to get me in on this job of yours."

Matt had to grin at that, following after. "I just get so frustrated with their friends sometimes—everyone looks at me like a little boy." He directed an almost accusing look at Jinli.

"Don't look at _me_ like that," Jinli retorted. "I was warned about your age before we met, and since then I've _doubted_ it."

"Do I really act that immature?" Matt dropped petulantly on the couch.

"Well, you are now," the man retorted. "I meant I thought you were _older_."

Matty looked up at him, startled.

"So don't get all petulant on _me_. I just lost my _job_, so if anything **_I_** have the right to throw a hissy fit."

Matty smirked at that, then shook his head and sat back. "So...aside from getting fired, how are you?"

"I suppose I can't complain," Jinli returned, leaning forward and grabbing the remote. "My girlfriend left me, the guy who was my best friend moved off to L-2 for no more reason than he wanted to...and I got bludgeoned with all the shit from my youth I try to pretend didn't happen...nothing much."

Matty smirked at that, curling up where he sat. "I got grabbed and held hostage, tortured, and they can't find the guy who tortured me, so I'm tagging along on my boyfriend's coat-tails waiting for something to happen."

The man gave him an almost approving look. "I knew I liked you. What do you wanna watch?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Five**

"You like guys, right?" Trowa muttered, kicking Cardle's leg under the table.

Cardle jumped, pulling his eyes away from the file he'd been reading to look at Trowa. "What? ...sir?"

"Yuy's boyfriend does this...shy thing," Trowa explained as Raymond looked around to him in confusion. "He's cute."

"Yeah, he is," Cardle gave him a perplexed look. "I don't understand."

Trowa looked around to Raymond.

"Don't look at me," Raymond retorted. "I have no idea what nonsense you're talking about either."

"_Raymond_," Cardle hissed at him.

"...sir," Raymond added, then grinned wickedly.

Trowa gave the man a level look, then focused back on Cardle. "Sorry," he added, shaking his head. "It was weird to see it."

"You _are_ surrounded by a lot of bisexual males," Cardle suggested carefully. "Maybe...not saying you are," he added. "But maybe...maybe you just understand."

Trowa stared at him.

"Sorry, sir," the man muttered, looking back to the file he had open.

"I guess," Trowa muttered thoughtfully, sitting back. He'd been exposed to Heero's tastes for the better part of five years, and Duo's off and on for that same time...and really, he made moves on Tim. Tim didn't seem to see it that way or react to them at all, and he didn't actually _mean_ them...so it really could just be the association.

Pleasant thought...bi by association.

He shook his head ruefully, looking back to the folder. "I seriously don't want to read this, so I'm not going to," he sat back and looked between the men. "You two can, and tell me all about it."

Cardle sighed, looking up to him—he could see the recrimination in the man's eyes.

Trowa sniggered, rising to his feet. "And I'm going to hide it by having to go run and have a word with the good general. Keep on task, boys," he clapped his hands at the pair. "I'll see if I can fish out Ricci."

"Oh joy," Raymond muttered, rolling his eyes.

"If you _get_ me in trouble," Cardle hissed, "I will _tie_ you to your bed and..."

"Kinky," Trowa cut in before he could say more, then left the room. He wasn't particularly worried about Raymond's disrespect. The man had a mind that could find all sorts of nooks and crannies to search. Besides, the stiff formality that most soldiers offered him was boring. He didn't like being reminded every sentence that he was back in uniform.

They hadn't left the military just to jump back in again.

Trowa shook his head again, considering the information he'd gathered.

Marsh had sent out a warning message giving the soldiers an hour to remove the blockade, but had thrown one of his tantrums and sent his men out at the end of the call. He'd seen the video from Lu's black-box. That attack had been thrown back easily, and a few more had pushed out...before twice as many armed suits as before had come out. That had been when Lu'd been injured, and a goodly number of those suits had come out under surrender. The ones that hadn't had fought their way clear, but before they could be properly pursued, another wave of suits, of armed MS..._more_ armed MS...

The world'd had enough of MS as weapons. They all needed destroyed. That was the short and the long of it—but that wasn't going to happen either.

Trowa shook his head again. The last of that second wave of soldiers had been pushing back against the former barricade and their back-up...but then the scramble had hit.

"They've all...surrendered."

Trowa jumped hard, looking up to see Une near a window.

"I was just coming to find you," she added, starting to rub at her temples. "Soldiers were pursuing the MS, and we sent a sweep in to secure 27. The men said that there were...hundreds...of men standing in formation. Each and every one of them was wearing sweat pants and fitted t-shirts and their hands over their heads. There were piles of weapons arranged by type—knives, autos, semi-autos...even boots. Each and every man had his dog-tags outside his shirt...and they were just standing there. The order for them to lay down wasn't even out of Pathax's mouth when they were all on their faces."

Trowa stared at her.

She shook her head, still massaging her temples.

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Trowa asked skeptically.

"It would be," she returned, "if half their number hadn't gotten away."

"We can only go _so_ far into space," Trowa reminded her.

"They didn't go into space, Trowa," she returned, studying his face. "They went to earth."

"Then the satellites..." he trailed off as he remembered what had happened. The satellites had been scrambled, and Heero'd said it would take them an hour to reset.

She nodded tiredly, rubbing more at her temples. "Their machines, they shouldn't have been able to penetrate the atmosphere...but they did. We lost most of them because we had to stop to put up our atmosphere shields."

"Wow," he muttered, leaning back against the wall behind him.

"That's a succinct way to put it," she noted dryly, studying his eyes. "I need the five of you to meet in my office in a half hour," she said quietly. "I don't care if Duo has to wake Zechs up...put Mattox with Lu, actually. Let Peacecraft sleep and have Mattox take over the guard duty."

"Zechs asked Duo not to leave Lu's side," Trowa returned, studying her face. "I don't think he will, even if you order it."

She stared at him a long moment in silence, then nodded her head once and looked away. "Then we'll meet with her. A half hour, Barton," she added, starting away from him again. "Not one second later."

"Yes, Ma'am," he muttered, watching her go.

He had a feeling things had just gotten _very_ complicated—and for some reason, he didn't appreciate it.

- -

_Rendezvous with Lu. Twenty-nine minutes and counting._

Heero considered the message on his phone a long moment and shrugged to himself. _Twenty-eight._

_Twenty-seven_, Duo noted.

_Twenty-six?_ Quatre asked interestedly.

_Wow, you can count_! Wufei announced. _I'm SO proud_!

Heero grinned at that, then looked around at the men and women who'd been watching him. "I have to go," he summed up what he'd been saying. "You know your jobs well enough, I hope, that I don't have to give you all individual orders."

"Sir!" most of them chirped with salutes—at least, the ones who hadn't said 'yes sir', anyway. They dissolved away from him before he could even get his phone back in his pocket, and he logged off of Une's account.

He didn't understand why she'd let him take her laptop. The thing had access to every single military resource in the entire earth-sphere. He didn't have the clearance necessary to use the thing, but she'd given it to him willfully and told him to fix things.

Granted, that had been just the two of them, her smiling at him in a way that told him one thing very plainly.

She knew he could—they could.

Heero shook his head and darted off down the hall to the woman's office. She'd told him their cards gave them access to everything on the base but the black-room, and if they wanted access to that, to let her know.

It amused him vaguely that for a few hours, he'd been the most powerful man in the universe...as far as control and things went. Her laptop could probably give the orders that destroyed the moon and no one would question her right to order it—just her reason.

He dropped the machine on her desk—he'd had to use his pass-card to enter her office, then turned and headed for the entrance. He pulled his phone out, it'd buzzed at him a few more times...and blinked.

_I don't have a way to GET there_, Matty had noted.

_We'll come for you_, Trowa'd retorted.

_I'm not alone._

_If you've picked up a lover_, Trowa returned as Heero blinked, _then I'll sit back and watch Heero mutilate him happily._

_Mutilation is not Heero's style_, Duo noted.

_What do you mean, not alone?_ Heero asked, wondering about that. He was pretty sure the mutilation stuff was a joke.

_Jinli has been here with me_, Matty explained—Heero could have sworn the guy shrugged between texts. _So I'm not alone._

_How sweet of you to keep him company_, Wufei noted, pulling a new number into the chat-room.

_Say what?_

_You're with Matty_, Wufei explained easily. _How sweet of you to keep him company._

_Because I got fired?_ the man demanded. _You call that sweet?_

_What?_ Duo demanded in disbelief. _How did you get fired?_

_Who is that?_ Jinli protested.

_It's Duo_, Wufei returned. _Don't tell me you didn't realize you were in a chat room...that's special, Jin._

_A chat...oh, hey, guys...I'm turning off my see-as-you-type now._

Heero sniggered.

_Just follow after Matty like a good little puppy_, Wufei suggested, moving out of the building behind Heero. _We'll come by and pick you up._

_I love how everyone's in my chat and no one's greeted me_, Trowa noted happily, also moving from the building.

"You're whiney," Wufei informed the man and his two henchmen. "You know that, don't you? Why are you bringing the parade?"

"It's only a parade if there are three of us...sir," Raymond retorted.

Wufei pointed at each of them one at a time, then cast a mock-perplexed look to Heero.

Heero grinned, sliding into the van that had pulled up.

"Is there even enough _room?_" Quatre demanded, jogging from the building and glaring at the two soldiers.

"I hope you do that some day and someone kidnaps you," Trowa informed Heero testily as his two men slid into the back-most row. "And there should be," he glared at the raven-haired male a moment and climbed in.

"Me, too," Heero retorted, grinning slightly at Quatre. "Then I'd have a direct line to the bad guys."

The driver guffawed at that, then shook his head. "The hospital, sirs?"

"No, the hotel room," Wufei returned, shifting around to look at the two males. "I don't think we need to break speed-limits this time."

_What's going on?_ Matty had asked.

_We're all in the van_, Heero explained. _Duo?_

_We're all right_, Duo noted. _It's quiet here. Why are we meeting here?_

_Don't ask questions_, Trowa retorted.

_That makes absolutely no sense_, Quatre informed him happily, then flashed a smile at Wufei. _Jin? I'm adding you to my phone, and I'm sure the others already have. Be advised that we'll all pester you eventually._

_And most likely at the same time_, Matty agreed. _And usually for the same reason._

Heero sniggered, looking up to Trowa and Wufei, who were also grinning.

"What...are you guys doing?" Cardle asked quietly.

"We're chatting," Wufei returned, turning his phone so they could catch a brief glimpse of the face. "We do that sometimes. We're easily amused like that."

The man grinned back at him.

"So...what are we doing?" Quatre asked Trowa pointedly.

"We're going to the hospital," Trowa returned. "Then we'll probably go have supper."

"Wonderful," Wufei noted, looking around. "My friend got fired from work and we're all going out to dinner."

"Why don't you ask him what happened in a personal chat?" Trowa asked as if he thought it was strange Wufei hadn't. "Then maybe see why he's hanging out with the...with Matty," he glanced briefly at Heero.

"The what?" Heero asked levelly. "I already asked you to lay off."

"I didn't _do_ anything," Trowa snapped back, giving him a petulant look.

"But what were you going to call him?" Heero snapped.

"Pretty," Trowa returned, staring directly into Heero's eyes. "I was going to call him the pretty boy."

"You've lost your mind," Wufei informed the guy tiredly, shifting around to sit properly again.

Heero glared at Trowa a moment, then shifted around himself.

Quatre considered Trowa sidelong a long moment, then shifted around to smile at the men in the back seat. "So how are you two?"

- -

"Thirty-two minutes," Trowa noted pointedly as Une moved into the hospital room. "You're late."

"I said _you_ had to be here in thirty," she retorted, then looked them all over. "You, you, you, and you...out."

Cardle, Raymond, Matty, and Jinli blinked at her—though Cardle and Raymond were already scurrying.

"What's going on?" Quatre asked, staring at the woman in disbelief.

"We'll wait out here," Matty muttered, kissing Heero briefly, then headed for the door. Jinli considered Une a moment, met eyes with Wufei and raised his eyebrows, then followed the teen from the room.

"So, gentlemen," Une said when the door had shut, glancing at Lu with a small frown on her face. She shook her head and looked back to them. "You're going back to earth."

They exchanged looks.

"But," she added, taking a long slow breath and closing her eyes. "But...I need you still."

They exchanged more looks.

She took a long slow breath and met their eyes. "I need you in...full...regalia."

They all looked at her—the four that had been at the base glanced down at their uniforms uncertainly, then looked around to each other again.

"Gundams," Duo said quietly, studying his friends over before looking back to the woman. "You want us to get our gundams."

She nodded, looking down.

"I knew I should have destroyed Heavyarms," Trowa sighed, starting to rub his face. "I knew it."

Heero laughed wickedly, glancing around to Quatre—who was also grinning.

"And what of me?" Wufei asked quietly.

"Well, my dear dragon," she said, straightening slightly. "With the information we gathered from the various machines...some of our scientists have put together something new."

All their faces went flat.

"We didn't create a new gundam," she snapped at them irritably. "It's a combination of a few old suits...though..." she glanced sidelong at Duo. "It has a modification."

"What _sort_ of modification?" Duo asked quietly.

Une looked to her feet a moment, then raised her head and surveyed them with cool-eyed regal dignity. Her look ended on Duo, and she held his eyes. "A copy of Deathscythe's cloak."

Duo's eyes hardened.

Wufei sat heavily—he'd been standing, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm not using Heavyarms," Trowa said quietly. "No one is using Heavyarms."

"Sandrock needs to stay off," Quatre added. "He needs to stay powered down."

Une's head snaked around to look at the pair of them.

"No matter what you do or what you say," Quatre added firmly, "you don't know where we hid them, and you _won't_ know where we hid them."

"If we had those machines..."

"The machines are supposed to be destroyed," Trowa snapped at her. "Only held in reserve for the ultimate emergencies. Deserters and rebels are _not_ worth that cover."

"Wing," Quatre spoke up, glancing at Heero. "Wing needs to stay powered down, too."

Heero nodded tiredly.

"With the cloak," Duo said quietly, "it will be impossible for anyone to take digital recordings of your new toy. We don't need to bring the gundams back to life."

"Some of the machines Gerrange had were altered," she spat, turning to glower at him. "Some of them had the same cloaking as your damn machine."

"Because _your_ scientist were playing with the information," Duo spat back, rising to his feet. "Because _you_ couldn't let well enough alone."

Une stepped back, glaring at him.

"She...doesn't trust you," Quatre noted in disbelief, looking up to Duo. "You scared her when you stood up."

"Only a fool stays near a pissed gundam pilot," she spat over her shoulder at him. "And you know the five of you were trained better than most soldiers."

"Most?" Wufei asked in amusement. "That's an interesting understatement."

Une crossed her arms, turning to face them all again with a glower.

"You said the new machine wasn't a gundam," Wufei noted pointedly. "If it's not a gundam, what is it?"

"Leftovers from aries, libras, and tauruses," she retorted, studying him. "The only part of it remotely gundam is the cloaking device—and that's because the mechanism needs gundanium to function."

Wufei started rubbing at his face.

"Why?" Heero asked quietly. "Why are you desperate enough to tempt fate?"

"Because...because more of the information we had on the gundams...was compromised."

Quatre started rubbing his temples.

"A few of the deserters had access to sensitive information," she added, starting to dry-wash her hands as she looked them all over. "A few of them had permissions to...to investigate discoveries."

"You let discontent war-rick scientists _create_ new weaponry?" Duo demanded, stepping closer to the woman and pulling her to face him by the shoulder. "You _let._.."

"Brigadier," Une hissed, glowering up at him, "you will _not_ touch me."

"If you can't even trust us," Trowa noted dryly, "then why tell us to pull out weapons of mass destruction?"

"Why are you scared of _Duo?_" Quatre added in disbelief. "How can you be _scared_ of Duo?"

"He's looming," Heero noted happily, bouncing to his feet. Une's eyes flashed toward him, but he bounced to Duo's side anyway, moving so his head was between Duo and the woman.

"Stop," Duo tsked, shoving him back irritably.

"I like it when you scare me," Heero noted happily, moving between them again. "It's exciting when you scare me."

Quatre groaned, covering his face as Trowa snickered.

Duo settled back, glaring at Heero.

"See?" Heero asked Une happily. "It's easy to redirect him," he moved from between them again. "If he starts looming at you again, just say something off-color."

Duo snorted at that, shoving at Heero again.

Heero laughed happily, moving around Duo and sighing as he moved up to Lu's bed. "Hey, beautiful," he muttered. "How long were you awake?"

"Long enough to hear you embarrassing Une," Lu retorted.

The change of focus was instant, everyone rising and moving to look at her on the bed.

She smiled slightly at all of them, then frowned as she looked around. "Where...where is Zechs?"

"He needed to sleep," Duo explained. "Last I saw, he was out in the lobby on a couch."

"Oh," she caught Duo's hand, smiling at him. "You were here, weren't you?"

He nodded, wrapping both his hands around hers as he studied her fingers—then blinked.

"Ooh!" she muttered, pulling her hand away to finger a ring on her ring-finger. "I didn't tell you guys, did I?" she laughed lightly, then groaned. "That made the world spin...he asked me finally. Can you believe it? He _finally_ asked me..."

"That's wonderful," Duo said, his eyes still on the ring.

"Congratulations," Wufei muttered, moving to take her other hand. "When were you _planning_ on telling us?"

"He wanted to wait a little bit," she returned, smiling slightly at Wufei. "We thought I might be...pregnant." Her hand moved to her belly and a brief flicker of sadness crossed her face. "The doctors told me I wasn't though...they said that even before..."

Duo had his eyes closed.

Quatre moved around the bed and under Duo's arm, studying his face. It made Duo open his eyes to look at him, then smile. He smiled a little more, then looked back to Lucretzia. "That's good, at least."

She smiled back at that, then looked back to her ring...then blinked and looked back to Quatre.

"I have a boyfriend," Quatre informed her with a slightly wicked grin.

Lucretzia and Une both stared at him a long moment, before Lu started giggling. She raised a hand to her head, but she still giggled.

Quatre waited until she'd stopped to grin wickedly at her...and lean up to kiss Duo properly.

"Oh geeze," Trowa muttered with a sigh, turning away as the woman started giggling harder.

"I...I..." Une was obviously dumbfounded as she looked them all over. "I'll...go get Mattox and your friend," she said quietly, looking around to Wufei. "I'll...send them in."

"We'll talk," Heero reassured her quietly. "You get us the compromised information, and we'll let you know what we plan to do."

"I'm putting a lot of trust in you, Yuy," she returned quietly, starting for the door. "You remember that when we all get court-martialed."

He snorted at her.

"What?" Lu asked blankly, actually looking at them. "You're all in uniform—I suppose I should salute, huh?"

"The day you salute me," Duo informed hear easily, "is the day I turn you over on my knee and spank your ass."

"Kinky," she retorted, then giggled again.

Quatre snorted, then looked around to the door as Zechs moved into the room.

"Hey, love," he muttered, moving across instantly to unconsciously shoulder Duo from his path. "Are you okay?"

"Quatre and Duo are a couple," she returned, grinning at him.

Zechs stopped completely, then looked around to Duo.

"Congratulations," Wufei noted to Zechs before he could speak. "It's about damn time you two got married."

- -

"It's so...cold," Jaden whispered, following after Rab with his coat tight around him. Even with his fingers turning to ice and his legs stinging, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the mass of darkness that was supposed to be the ocean.

"Just come on," Rab muttered, glancing at the ocean himself. He shook his head, then focused back on their path.

Jaden was tired and tense, and something about the deep dark night was messing with him badly. It took him a moment to figure out what, though, and that was a glance at his watch.

His watch read eleven-hundred hours.

It _looked_ like it should be twenty-three hundred hours, if anything.

Really, though, Jaden couldn't wait to get wherever Rab was taking them and curling up under blankets. Qingfu looked about the same, but Jaden wasn't entirely sure the man had _slept._

He had counseled Rab not to contact the barricade himself if he was going to try and insist on its removal...and the fact that it had been someone Rab knew from the Eve wars figured. Fate...or karma...was playing a terrible joke on all of them, and Rab was too fool to try and pull himself out.

But Jaden had thrown in his lot, and all he had left to do was wait and see.

He'd gone to bed at nine on Saturday night—he'd been tired anyway, and had wanted some sleep. From what he could tell, Rab had waited long enough for him to head for his bed before calling. It'd been ten, probably, when he'd realized the buzz around him wasn't just because he was going to sleep earlier than normal. He himself had gone out in an MS not long after that...so he'd had...an hour's sleep.

It was cold.

"There," Rab muttered quietly.

Jaden pulled his eyes away from the dark mass of darkness he'd been staring at. There was only a tiny sliver of a moon in the sky, and aside from the sound, there wasn't much to see...but he could feel something different in the air itself, and there was a smell to it...

They were at a house. The yard around the place was well lit.

Qingfu looked nervously to Jaden, but moved past him to follow the man anyway. There were dozens of safe houses set up around the planet. The intent was to settle for a few days respite before heading to South America, where an entire village was being set up in the Amazon jungle.

Rab pushed the door open.

"Marsh!" Ranger's voice was a croak. "Marsh! I was starting to worry! Oh shit...J! Jaden!" Jaden was pulled into a rough hug.

Jaden stared at Ranger in disbelief.

"You guys must be exhausted...though maybe not," he smiled, pulling Qingfu into a brief hug. "I nearly shit myself when the satellite network crashed. Come in! Come in!" he pulled them away from the door to stare outside a long moment, then look around to Jaden again. "Have you ever seen anything like it?" he whispered.

Jaden shook his head, looking back out into the darkness.

"Wait for the sun," Ranger whispered to him, then turned his welcoming smile back to Rab and Qingfu. "I'm damn tired. I've been waiting forever...come on, the house will warm you up soon enough. J, you look dead on your feet..."

Deroy was the last person Jaden had been expecting to see, but at least he was welcoming.

He tossed his jacket onto a chair near the door, then moved to the end of some stairs—Rab had been wandering around looking the area over, and Qingfu hesitated before tossing his jacket as well.

"What?" Ranger asked, looking back to Qingfu. "You have a weird..." the man trailed off hesitantly. "Expression," he decided.

"I thought you were dead," Qingfu returned quietly, staring at him. "From what I gathered, I thought you were caught for sure."

Ranger frowned, looking to Jaden a moment. "You too?" he sighed. "I thought at least you'd be happy to see me."

"I just wasn't expecting you _here_," Jaden retorted, smiling at the man. "I didn't figure you were dead at all."

"I'm touched," Ranger retorted.

"Yeah, in the head," Rab agreed, grinning at the man. He looked around to Qingfu. "You should go download what information you can," he noted, jerking his head to indicate another room. "Didn't you say the downloading takes the longest time? It might take the geniuses a while to do it, but they will eventually get around to re-encoding the systems. I want as much as I can get before that."

"Right," Qingfu muttered, turning for that room. "I'll start on that now."

"You need sleep," Ranger noted, looking pointedly to Jaden. "Come with me and I'll show you where."

Jaden sighed and nodded, rising to his feet.

It was well past time for him to sleep—and he was still able to pilot an MS.

For some reason, that was a depressing thought.

- -

"We are _not_ married," Zechs argued at Wufei.

"She's wearing the ring, she all but said it...just accept it."

"But we're _not_ married," Zechs retorted. "I _asked_ her to marry me, but we haven't done the ceremony yet."

"You just went in and did the legal stuff at the court-house?"

Matty started laughing, covering his face with his hands.

"You're annoying," Zechs informed Wufei, then cast a look at Matty.

Matty grinned back at him innocently.

"Are you two engaged yet?" Zechs demanded of him, wanting to change the subject. He knew Wufei was just trying to get a rise out of him, and he didn't want to give in anymore than he had. He'd known he probably shouldn't have agreed to go with the guy to get snacks—he didn't know why Matt had decided to go with them though.

The question made the grin vanish for a brief moment from the little-Asian's face before his sparkling eyes met Zechs' cool-blue again.

"I don't think Heero's thought that far ahead yet," Wufei noted. "I don't know if you're aware or not...but we haven't known Matt that long...I mean like, early-January."

"What is today?" Zechs demanded, looking to Matt.

"April thirtieth," Matty returned, tilting his head. "It really _was_ just January, wasn't it?" he cast Wufei a grin. "I feel like I've known you forever."

Wufei grinned at him, then looked back to Zechs. "So what day did you guys get married?"

Zechs smacked him.

- -

"This is...uncalled for..." Heero growled, slamming the pile of papers he was reading onto the table. He raised his head to look between Quatre and Trowa, then shoved the things away as he started massaging his temples.

"Uh..." Quatre started.

"I _know_ 'uncalled for' doesn't work," he retorted irritably. "I just can't think of any other way to put it."

Quatre snorted lightly. "I was actually going to ask if you were okay."

Heero raised his eyes to blink at the former-blond, noting that it was Duo who'd have called him on phrasing—or Wufei.

Where _was_ Wufei?

"We've been here...what? Fourteen hours?" Trowa glanced at his watch. "It's only been fourteen hours, and everything's gone to hell in a handbasket."

"With bells and ribbons," Quatre agreed with a tired sigh, tossing his stack of papers down as he thought. "They need to completely lock their information down."

"And then how would people access it?" Trowa demanded dryly.

"Just re-code their access cards," Heero noted, giving him an interested look.

"And how do we know who can be trusted?" Trowa persisted, giving them both looks. "There were a few guys arrested already for aiding and abetting the idiot rebels...but that couldn't have been _all_ of them. Rabid has never been one to keep all his eggs in one basket."

"With bells and ribbons?"

Trowa glared briefly at Quatre, then looked back to Heero.

"You could figure out who can be trusted, can't you?" Heero asked the dark-haired male interestedly.

Quatre stared at him a long moment, then looked sidelong at Trowa. "If I talked...to every one of them...one at a time," he agreed, narrowing his eyes. "That's not exactly...going to work. I _don't_ have the patience for that shit."

"But..." Heero thought back to things he'd picked up before. "You know other space-hearts, don't you?"

"A few," he agreed, frowning slightly. "Why?"

"Well...I'm sure some of the soldiers are. You could...gather a few up and show them? And then they could show more?"

"But things could get complicated fast. I can't always tell one lie from another...and..."

Heero considered that, shifting back in his seat, then met eyes with Trowa.

"What?" Trowa asked skeptically.

"If you just..." Heero looked back to Quatre. "We could have them...just the ones who are supposed to have access to these files...we could have them come watch a presentation about 27, right? And after the first explanation of why we're there, we could pull them away one at a time. They'd be so focused on that...wouldn't that work?"

"It could," Quatre mused. "But how many people are supposed to have access to the information? I didn't read that far," he shifted to separate pages.

"About a hundred," Heero returned, considering the blond. "If you get...like...twenty...guys who can tell like you, then you'd only have to do five each. That way you could be..."

"Heero," Quatre cut him off evenly, "if what I did was _that_ common..."

"I'm just throwing numbers," Heero protested, giving him a look."

"And if there are only five?" Quatre retorted. "That means we all get to do twenty. That _doesn't_ give time to be thorough."

Heero smiled sweetly at him. "The worst that will happen is that we're here a few days, Quatre. Lu's not recovered enough to be moved out of the I.C.U., do you _really_ want to leave yet?"

Quatre hunched down to glower at the man.

"Wow," Trowa noted, blinking at his friend, "you're...evil."

Heero gave him a very level look, then stood. "I'm getting my laptop. With any luck, I can have it coded tonight—that way we can put it in place before the workday starts tomorrow. Quatre? Why don't you call Une. Let her know what I'm doing and going to make you do...then Duo should be back and you can go sulk with him in private."

Quatre rose to his feet, glowering at the other man, then sighed resignedly. "I-I-I hate you," he noted, then turned to walk off.

Heero focused after him in alarm.

"Not that kind of hate," Trowa reassured him, grinning slightly. "Though right now, he might not believe it himself."


	6. Chapter 6

**Six**

"Hey, Qingfu?"

"Yeah?" Qingfu muttered, moving down the hall and rubbing his eyes.

"Something's up with this," he indicated the computer. "Your download stopped."

Qingfu frowned, moving a bit more quickly to look at the screen. He snorted, though, sitting down. "How annoying, the connection was reset...let me just..."

Ranger looked around, listening. J'd slept until noon, and then they'd gone out to eat after everyone had showered. The man had taken a nap then, but where was he now?

The computer made a noise.

"What?" Qingfu demanded. "Don't be retarded, my access information..." he trailed off, starting to type again.

The computer made that same noise.

"What?" Ranger asked.

"This is...something's weird," Qingfu muttered, then raised his eyes to frown at Ranger. "What's weird?"

Ranger thought about that a moment, but the thoughts escaped him. He focused on it more and felt a moment of amusement, but then it was gone again.

So what had been amusing?

He looked back to Qingfu and shrugged. "No clue."

The man sighed and started typing again...then again.

"What?" Rab muttered, moving into the area. "What's wrong?"

"I can't log in," Qingfu explained as that sound came again. "It's telling me my access is denied."

Rabid stared down at the man a long moment, then looked around the room nervously. "Do you think they..."

"Are you kidding?" Qingfu retorted, glancing up at him. "To change the access codes...that'd be _insane_. They'd have to deny mine specifically, and they can't do that really without my card."

"Well...what is this then?" Rab gestured at the screen.

"Probably a mess up in the connection," Qingfu returned. "I'll start checking that in a minute...I mean...in order to just...they'd have to have just changed the entire...and then they'd have to go card by card," he looked nervously up at Ranger and shrugged. "You see what I mean, don't you?"

"Sure, just like clouded glass," Ranger agreed, turning toward the main area of the house. "J?"

"Yeah?" the man called from the kitchen.

"I'll get you some gloves...wanna go on a walk?"

"You want to go on a walk with me?" Jaden asked dryly.

Ranger sniggered at that. "Dude...the _ocean_, come on."

Jaden hesitated, glancing toward the windows of the place. "Good point."

- -

Quatre smirked slightly as he followed Une into a small room. For some reason, he couldn't help but wonder who'd been annoyed by Heero's re-code. It was the type of random notion that made him wonder how vindictive he really was—and also had no way to measure if it was part of the space-heart crap.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen," Une said, running her hands through her hair. "You're here because Winner needs some lackeys and you've all tested positive in the space-heart stuff."

"That sounds professional," Quatre noted, raising an eyebrow at the woman.

"We can have this conversation from front to end _later_, Brigadier," she informed him with far too much cheer. "I think I insist," she added almost dryly, smiling back to the other people in the room. "I have...a _lot_," those words were directed at Quatre, "of stuff to see to this morning, so please cooperate with the good...with Winner. Excuse me," she smiled at the people in the room, then glared at Quatre a moment longer and left the room.

Quatre grinned again.

"Wow, she's...chipper," Soung, one of the males noted quietly, looking back to Quatre. He was one of the few friends Quatre'd had before they left the military that was still around. Actually, Quatre could see other old friends sprinkled through the gathering—that boded well, really. Enough people who could _do_ what he needed, and it'd take them one day to test everyone involved.

The former-blond smirked, looking to Soung. "Chipper?" he asked sarcastically. "You call that _chipper?_"

"I'd be warmer on a glacier," a female he didn't know noted, rubbing her hands together. "...sir."

He gave her a look, and she had the good grace to look abashed.

"He's wearing his rank like a sign, and you add the respect in as an afterthought?" another male asked in amusement. "May as well have neglected it like Soung."

"Soung," Soung noted sardonically, "is an old friend of the Brigadier."

"And _Soung_," Quatre noted happily, "really needs to remember that people don't _refer_ to themselves in the third person...much."

"_Soung_," the male returned pleasantly, his eyes sparkling, "thinks Winner needs his ass kicked."

Quatre laughed at that, moving forward to clasp the man's hand and half-hug him. "You look just as Asian as ever," he noted, looking the man over.

"Something happened to your hair," Soung noted, giving him a skeptical look. "I'm not sure what yet, but it's different."

"You're smart," Quatre retorted, turning to focus on the rest of the group.

"I know," Soung agreed, completely nonplussed.

Quatre snorted, gave him a look, then focused back on the others. "Before anyone else makes an ass of themselves, I'll note that I've been friends with Soung, Matsuda, Gabai, Helin, and Leiva for several years now." He looked back to the man who'd spoken up. "Who are you?"

The guy gave him an embarrassed look and stood at attention. "First..."

"I didn't say I wanted your rank," Quatre cut that off quickly. "If you give me your rank, then I won't see _you_, I'll see what you're supposed to do. At this point, I need _you_, not your title. What's your name?"

"Sonam," the guy returned, almost seeming shy. "Sonam Pham."

"I'm Quatre," Quatre returned, offering his hand as he studied the guy's eyes. "And I can already tell you'll be working with me." He looked the room over again, at the myriad hopeful faces, and the ones not-so pleased. "I only need twenty," he noted quietly, amazed he could _say_ that. "And you lot already know you're in," he gestured toward the people he'd hung out with before. "So get out of the way so I can pick my other ducklings."

"So what does that make us?" Soung demanded, reaching forward and grabbing Pham's arm.

"Goslings," Quatre retorted, then pointed at the guy. "Duck, duck..." he pointed at the female who'd spoken before. "Duck..."

"We aren't in a circle," Matsuda protested, her eyes sparkling as she moved to look at Quatre from the side. "If you say goose, how are we supposed to run to catch anyone?"

"We can run," Gabai noted in amusement. "We have a whole base to run—the question that really matters is, if he says goose, how do you know when you've made the full circuit?"

Quatre rounded on his old friends, happily indignant. "Do you _mind?_"

"Not at all," Gabai reassured him happily, making a flippant gesture with his hand. "Keep going, you're not interrupting us."

Matsuda started giggling.

"Good," Quatre returned with a truly warm smile. "I was hoping not..." he turned back to the confused looking people that remained. "Duck..."

Gabai started giggling, there was no other way to refer to it...and turned to move to the back of the group.

Quatre laughed himself, pointing out another person.

There were some things he wouldn't change for the world—and some he'd have to think about.

- -

"You look good," Hilde muttered, studying Duo over with interest.

Duo nodded distantly, thinking things over. He hadn't picked himself a task, which he assumed meant he got to do the presentation about 27...but he couldn't seem to care. It had been bad enough that they'd gotten summoned in the first place, let alone to have it announced Lu had been hurt.

He'd _thought_ he was okay with that whole situation...

"You look...really good," Hilde noted, resting her hand on his forearm as she studied his eyes. "I..."

"You look healthy," he noted, forcing himself to focus on her and smile. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I've been floating around, trying to find something to do," she shrugged. "I ended up here, and Une grabbed me and shoved me into her little jigsaw. Are you...okay?"

"I thought you said I looked good," he retorted, grinning slightly at her.

She frowned at him.

He laughed lightly, looking around. "You have no idea what my life has been like lately," he muttered quietly. "I'm just waiting for the straw that'll break my back."

"I think we should talk," she said quietly, looking around herself. "Alone."

"Quatre's upset enough about my focus on Lu," Duo noted, studying her face. "We only saw you for a few minutes and it stressed him."

"What does that mean?" she asked blankly. "Quatre..."

"My boyfriend," Duo said in a quiet and pointed way, "has absolutely no self-assurance to speak of when it comes to relationships. He's never been in one, and he knows me better than I want him to."

She blinked, thinking about that.

"We do need to go have coffee, though," he noted, starting for Une. She was moving from one of the three halls, her expression dark. "I'd like that very much."

Hilde stared after him.

"You loom at me and I'll make soldiers grab you," Une informed him without preamble. "Yuy's done quite enough to stir up the hornet's nest, and I don't need to be worried if you'll attack me besides."

"That's below you," Duo retorted, his irritation returning. "You pull us out of our homes in a fit of panic, then tell us that you don't really need us...and oh, by the way, let soldiers play with the information gathered from the most _advanced_ killing-machines made in the last millennia, and now you're accusing me of...of wife-beating."

She stopped, swinging around to stare up into his face. "Don't even pretend that you aren't intimidating, Maxwell," she snapped. "Don't even act like your temper never gets the better of you. I know you'd never purposefully hurt me, but in the one moment it takes you to snap, you could do damage." She raised her hand to wrap it as much around his bicep as she could, squeezing.

She wanted to be like that?

Duo's annoyance got the better of him, and he snatched her into the air by the waist, raising her above his head. She squeaked much like Reg had before, and clung to his wrists like the other woman had too. ...and she started giggling like Regina as well.

"Put me down!" she squeaked at him, almost kicking out before she remembered her skirt. "Duo!"

Duo laughed and lowered her down as it occurred to him that he'd very much proven her point in a moment of pique...and as her feet touched the ground, his instincts had already taken over. Une was on the ground before he even realized he'd dropped her, and he had a firearm by the muzzle before he realized any of the soldiers around them had pulled their weapons.

Une groaned.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" Wufei demanded skeptically, breezing into the middle of the area as Une sat up. "General?" he asked, offering her his hand cordially.

"They pulled their weapons," Duo retorted, still holding the firearm so it was pointed at the ceiling. His eyes were scanning the men and women that encircled them, and he didn't like what he saw.

Too many of them had their weapons, and he and Wufei had none. Une had never carried one, and that meant it was up to them...

"He _grabbed_ the general!" the boy Duo was facing half-squeaked to Wufei, still trying to pull his weapon away. "He _grabbed_ her!"

"I _saw_ what he did," Wufei noted casually, looking the circle over in amusement. "But my question was directed at _you_ lot," he looked the people over again. "You could have gotten yourselves killed and wounded, drawing on Maxwell like that."

A group chatter erupted at that.

Duo got annoyed with the boy's struggles—he could be no older than Matty—and yanked the firearm from the guy's grip. It sent him toppling to the ground as Duo took the moment to disassemble the piece.

"They only saw him grabbing me," Une noted, regaining her dignity. "I don't think any of them realized I started laughing when he did it—he just grabbed me up, and they've been well trained. Thank you," she added, meeting eyes around the circle. "I do appreciate the effort, but when you're dealing with the brigadier generals, the safest course of action is quiet demands."

The kid had cursed as she spoke, and moved to his knees to put the weapon back together.

"I'm going to find Heero," Duo informed the woman and Wufei irritably. "I have my phone if you need me." He turned and stormed down the hall.

No one _trusted_ him.

Une had always been a little scared of him when he got annoyed, he'd never have called it 'scared' before the previous night's display, but he'd known it was true. She'd always been intimidated by him—and he supposed there was some merit to it. He would never have _hurt_ her, and he was pretty sure she knew that...but the fastest way to shut most women up when you wanted to was to startle them. He'd had to shut her up several times over.

Beyond that, though was the lovely little bit of fluff he called a boyfriend. It didn't matter that he _knew_ full-well that Quatre was insecure. Quatre was scared to lose him to anyone, despite the fact that Duo didn't more than glance at anyone. Their night had been spent in a mostly pleasant way before Quatre had asked him if he was thinking about Lu or Hilde.

Duo stormed down a side-hall.

Quatre had seen him juggling three lovers at a time before. Quatre'd seen him manipulate them to no end before...and Quatre didn't trust Duo not to play him.

That was bitter enough without the emotional turmoil. Lu was definitely getting better, but it had torn his heart out to hear her say she may have been pregnant...and it had stung to see the engagement ring on her finger. He'd known for years that he wasn't going to be with her, and he hadn't realized he'd harbored any hope at all until that ring—and on top of that, Zechs knew and understood. He'd very specifically wanted Duo with the woman, trusted that Duo _did_ care as much about her as he himself to see that she got the proper care and that she wasn't alone when she woke up.

He didn't need Hilde worming her way back into his life. She'd done her yo-yo trick more than enough for him to know she wasn't someone to put faith in—no, Quatre was the one to carry the faith. Quatre was neither in love with someone else, or able to run off on him because he got bored.

Actually, he was glad of that. Quatre's focus could calm him down out of his evident fits of rage, Quatre's influence could turn his depression into a smile...and he hadn't wanted Quatre to leave the hospital for that long the day before.

Duo rested a hand on the door he'd stopped in front of, then considered briefly why he was there. He'd been going to find Heero, where even _was_ he? It was almost like the door opened of its own accord. Half expecting to be called-out for interrupting a meeting, Duo flowed after his arm into the room...and stopped as a group of twenty or thirty looked back at him.

"Duo," Quatre said, startled. "What's up?"

Duo stared at the dark-haired male in confusion before realizing that standing there gaping might look a little strange. He gestured to the hall with his head, sliding back out.

That was weird. He hadn't even known where Quatre was _holding_ his meeting, let alone how to get there from the front.

"So you lot look the information over," Quatre muttered, "and I'll be back as soon as I can." He slid through the door and smiled at Duo, pulling the thing shut. He glanced up and down the hall surreptitiously, then leaned up to wrap his arms around Duo's neck and kiss him. "What's up?" he muttered, studying Duo's eyes.

"I needed you," Duo returned, studying him back. "It's a lot of stupid shit that happened before I realized what I was doing, but I wanted to be with you to calm back down."

"So you come interrupt my meeting for a kiss?" Quatre kissed him again, then gave him a mildly reprimanding look.

"You're the one doing the kissing," Duo retorted, studying the other's mouth. Heero'd said something about a cute bow, and Duo definitely understood what he meant. He leaned down, "or were."

It took them both a few kisses to remember they were in a base in uniform, and Duo drank in the moment before Quatre finally pulled away. He liked the feel of the former-blond in his arms, but there were more appropriate times to play at lovers.

"Are you okay?" Quatre asked, messing with Duo's hair. "Are you sure?"

"I am," Duo agreed straightening himself and running his hands through his own hair.

"I like it that length," Quatre noted, touching the ends again. "You shouldn't grow it out more."

Duo smiled at that, ruffling Quatre's hair. "I'm not sure if you should keep this or not—it looks good, but..."

"But you like your blond?" Quatre retorted, then kicked his shin.

"Hey!" Duo protested, starting to laugh as he backed up, brushing at the leg. "You're abusive."

"I can be when I have cause," Quatre retorted, then grinned and leaned forward, kissing him again. "You really need to go away before I get completely distracted from what I'm doing."

"I'm sure there's an empty office around here somewhere," Duo noted with a wicked grin, not quite moving his mouth. "This lot won't miss you for a few more minutes..."

To his surprise, Quatre actually _considered_ the offer. His blue eyes moved around the hall thoughtfully before he shook his head. "That won't work," he noted. "Getting in might be annoying, and getting caught would be more than embarrassing. There's always lunch, though," he met Duo's eyes. "Go back to the hotel? I don't think anyone will be there then."

Duo grinned at that and leaned forward, kissing Quatre again. "I need to go find Heero."

Quatre smiled at that and nodded, moving back to the door. "Lunch," he whispered, then disappeared.

Duo smirked at that, then started righting his uniform. Quatre's hadn't looked out of place, but he could feel that his own had shifted.

Maybe five minutes, and he felt good again...and even better, he had something to look forward to.

- -

Matty couldn't help but bounce as he moved through the base. He'd insisted he not be left at the hotel room again—which he still didn't understand. Every other time they'd been at the base, they'd had rooms in the building itself. This time, they weren't even on the base property.

It didn't matter, though, not really.

He turned toward a commons area where he knew vending machines were available.

Matty had been given the right of wandering. He also had access to a few privileges by Heero's rank. He hadn't been allowed to talk to Une in the room earlier that morning—they'd chased him out—but he'd heard her crying out in alarm before the anger had set in. She'd started tearing Heero a new asshole for re-coding the access without her permission...and that argument had promised to get volatile when he'd noted that she _had_ given him her laptop.

The teen grinned to himself, digging his wallet out of one of his pockets.

What he'd done instead of hovering in the hall, had been to find out where the uniform bits were kept. He'd already been wearing a white t-shirt, but he'd always liked the _color_ of the military-issue cargo-pants. It was a nice shade of green and a comfortable-looking material. The man in charge of the area had been more than willing to get him a few pairs after seeing his visitor's badge, and had been insisting the ones he'd gotten were the right size.

He had a feeling Heero would kill any man who looked at him in that size—they'd been comfortably snug, but he had no doubts that it had accentuated...bits of his body that Heero might appreciate, but Heero wouldn't want anyone else appreciating.

Matty grinned, studying his reflection in the glass of one of the machines.

In the end, the deal had been that he got _one_ size larger than he should. The guy had also dug out a pair of combat boots for him, but those hadn't been comfortable. They needed broken-in before they would be, so they'd been sent to some place where they'd be in the car when they left for the evening.

His visitor's pass dangling around his neck from a thick white lanyard, and the thing could probably get him into any room in the whole building. Heero's name and rank were typed very large at the top of the pass, and Matty's own picture and information took up the rest of the space—but the back had a barcode that, once scanned, controlled what he _could_ do or get into.

He leaned over to pull his drink out of the bottom of the slot, wondering why the machine _dropped_ a bottle of carbonated liquid. The drop shook them up, and the point of the vending machine was quick...

"Oooh..."

Matty straightened, turning to look at a man in much the same outfit as himself. The guy had one of the over-shirts, though, and his badge was clipped to one pocket. He was a broad man, and his eyes sparkled wickedly.

"Bend like that again," he muttered, moving closer with an appreciative grin.

"Hahaha," Matty retorted, moving away from the machine. "Funny."

"No, no..." the guy moved after him quickly, grabbing his upper arm. "Don't take it like that...come on, was just having a little fun."

Matty gave him a sour look and yanked away, starting off again.

"Yeah," the man chuckled wickedly, having stopped. "Just like that, huh? You _sure_ you don't wanna come back here?"

Matty flipped him off and started for the nearest corner. The man had far too much of Ranger's build to him.

"Come on," the guy coaxed, jogging to catch up. "Okay, fine," he added, grabbing Matty's arm again. "I'll stop with the lewd...what's your name?"

"Leave me alone," Matty returned, starting to yank away...and trying not to gasp when the grip tightened.

It was going to hurt any moment now...

"Calm down," the guy protested, swinging him around so his back hit the wall. "I'm just asking your name..."

"I said leave me alone," Matty snapped, starting to pull away. His heart was pounding in his chest, and as soon as he could get that step away...

"Matt!"

They both turned to a blond man who was moving up the hallway quickly.

"Mattox!" he repeated. "Brigadier Barton was about to have a _fit_...what's keeping you?"

The man let Matty go almost as if burned.

"Come on," Cardle added, grabbing his arm. "Let's get out of here before one of the brigadiers pop a seam..."

"Yeah," Matty agreed weakly as they swept off up the hall.

"You okay?" Cardle asked in a low voice as they turned the first corner they came to. "Weston's a little slow to understand he's not wanted. He seems to think he's god's gift to man-kind, and anyone who's reasonably attractive will happily fall into bed with him."

"He's...like...the same size as Ranger," Matty admitted, rubbing at his arm as Cardle released him.

"Ooh," Cardle muttered, his tone understanding as he grabbed Matty's left arm as well—his hands were careful though, as they moved the sleeve up. "Damn...you'll have a bruise for that."

Matty shuddered, wrapping his arms around himself. He nearly stopped walking, but at the same time, he had no idea if that man was still back there. "What does Trowa want?"

"Trowa?" the man echoed blankly.

"Barton?" Matty said pointedly. "You know? Your superior?"

"Oh!" the guy laughed a little at that. "Sorry, I didn't even _think_ he had first name...but he doesn't want you."

Matty gave him a curious look.

"I saw Weston chasing after you," Cardle explained, gesturing back the way they'd come from. "I was going to come up and say something about Yuy, but I work with Barton, so that name just came out of my mouth," he laughed a little. "Weston tends to hunt after the people who deny him, but noting that you're tied up with Barton should give you some leeway," he looked at Matty sidelong. "I got the impression Barton wouldn't mind being tied up with _you_."

Matty focused on him sharply, distracted. "What?"

"I can see by the flush in your cheeks," Cardle noted, sweeping a finger across Matty's cheek before starting to walk again, "that I don't _really_ have to answer that."

Matty blushed more, then shook his head and started after. "You can think what you will," he noted, "but _I_ can't help it if every damn man in the world thinks I'm hot."

"No," the man agreed, grinning wickedly, "but you could come walk in front of me."

Matty drew himself up.

Cardle half-giggled, darting out of arm's reach. "Okay...okay...that was _so_ called for, but I'll stop now."

Matty gave him a look.

"Come on," Cardle added, grinning again. "I'll take you to whichever pilot we find first and run really fast away so I have a chance of escaping before I'm caught."

Matty grinned at that, not able to help himself. He believed the man would do just that...and sort of wanted to see what the others would think of it.

"Let's...let's go find Yuy."

Cardle cringed, but didn't stop walking.

- -

Trowa snorted, starting off down another hall. Heero was running around the damn base somewhere, it was just a matter of _finding_ the man. Cardle, Raymond, and Ricci were off in other directions looking as well.

It wasn't like he needed Heero for anything particularly urgent. It was more a matter of a signature before proceeding. On top of that, he needed to get Duo and go over the information to present with him—Trowa and his three had spent the morning going through the files to see which would cause the most havoc...at least as far as they'd be able to tell.

As far as he knew, Quatre was still finding his space-hearts, and after he got what he needed, it'd take him a while to get his shit together.

That was the time they had to prepare their case.

Trowa thought it was stupid he needed Heero's signature at all. Heero'd talked them all into his plan before he even started to implement it—he'd said something about a united front that was all well and good, but it didn't make any of them like the notion any better. Duo'd noted that the _five_ war-gods proclaiming that everyone else could shove it up their collective asses would be much easier to get away with...and things had degenerated from there until he and Wufei had decided to go get snacks.

Things hadn't gotten any less lewd, though.

All in all, he himself felt he came out worse for the exchange...though his stomach muscles still ached from how hard he'd been laughing.

At any rate, the morning had started off with a bang, because as soon as they'd walked into the base, Une had passed Heero her laptop. He'd expected as much, though, so he'd had his re-code mostly worked up. It'd only taken him a half hour to implement it...and then he'd called down to the black-room, demanding that all work be saved and exited. He'd given them ten minutes to do it, and then had...reset the coding.

Trowa had to grin, because it was about that point that Une had caught wind of what he was doing.

She'd absolutely had a fit about it.

She _had_ given him the laptop wordlessly, though. Heero'd said she'd said something about putting her full faith into him, so she couldn't have _not_ expected him to do it in the end.

He shook his head, turning down another hall.

He _would_ find Heero, no matter where the idiot was hiding.

- -

"So the auditorium is set up," Une summed to Wufei, looking around the room curiously. "He was in my office last I checked, but Maxwell probably found him and they went off...though I suppose assuming that doesn't work."

"Not really," Wufei agreed, looking down a hallway that led deeper into the base. So far, he'd seen Duo wandering alone, Matty with Cardle, Trowa, Raymond...and the other guy that tagged along after Trowa.

He had not, however, seen hide or hair of Heero.

Quatre should still be with the space-hearts, and it was about time the auditorium had been made ready.

"Go find him," Une added, turning back from the man she'd been talking with. "And if you see Maxwell, let him know I'd like a word at his convenience."

"Right," Wufei agreed, turning and starting off down another hall.

The exchange with Duo hadn't made any sense to him. He'd seen the pair talking to one another, and Duo'd obviously been annoyed. Une had rounded on him at one point and grabbed his arm—and then Duo'd scooped the woman into the air.

He knew Duo did that to tease the various female he dealt with—one and all they broke into giggles and insisted he put them back down—but in the middle of about a half-ton of soldiers, it hadn't been the most thought-out action the other pilot had ever made. Seeing the weapons being drawn had caused Wufei a moment of panic, because the notion of Duo being...of Duo...

Wufei shook his head, poking his head into Une's empty office.

He felt no personal shame for knowing his own worst fear. He didn't feel anyone _else_ needed to know it, though. He'd lost more than enough people who were important to him. The idea of any of his friends dying, let alone dying like _that_...

He thought he'd dealt with his panic rather well, considering that the sight had seemed like a nightmare. He'd had the like before, though it wasn't usually Duo standing in the middle of the ring. It was usually Trowa, having gotten himself in over his head while infiltrating—and really, Une wasn't in those nightmares either.

He shook his head, taking another turn.

There was really no telling where Heero'd gotten to...but there was no point in mentioning that until Trowa had the information ready.

He may as well wander the premise; at least it was something to _do_.

That was the rub about the situation, though. Heero covered the electronic front, Trowa covered the information, and Quatre pulled the heartstrings—yes, that _had_ to be said at some point. He'd have to find a way to work it into the conversation. He could already _see_ the look of...disgust...Quatre'd give him, and Duo'd guffaw. Those responses were worth twice the effort. But the fact that the three pilots covered all the angles meant that he and Duo were just wall ornaments. They were neither needed or very useful...but they looked pretty.

Or something.

Wufei smirked very slightly, wandering down another hall.

He needed _much_ less time to think.


	7. Chapter 7

**Seven**

Heero yawned as he stared out a window. The colony was bright, and being able to see the curve of the thing was strange after the seven-miles of visibility on earth.

It was also boring.

He didn't have much to do until Quatre rooted out the bad guys from the good guys, and that needed the presentation...Duo, it was probably going to be Duo. Getting Quatre's end done required the presentation Duo was...probably...going to do, and that meant that Trowa needed to sift through the information and choose which and what, and that Une needed to get an auditorium ready.

He pushed away from the window, wandering down another hall. Matty was somewhere, and since he had nothing else to do...

- -

"I can't _find_ him," Trowa snapped at Cardle as the man and Matty joined him. He glanced briefly at Matty, but didn't say more. "You?"

"Nothing," Cardle admitted with a frown, looking around. "I checked the library, the records rooms...anywhere that had any official sound to it, and no one's even _seen_ him today."

"I said he wouldn't be in the library," Matty noted, rolling his eyes. He hadn't spent any time with Trowa since the man had finally stopped grabbing him the day before, and it felt a little awkward.

Trowa eyed him a moment, then rolled his eyes. "Then where _is_ he?"

"If I knew that," Matty retorted, "do you honestly think I'd be tagging along after him?" he gestured at the man.

"I'm not sure if I should resent that or not," Cardle noted skeptically, studying the younger male. "What do you think?"

Matty considered it himself, then shrugged. "Not worth the effort."

"No?" Cardle shrugged and looked back to Trowa.

Trowa snorted, looking between the pair a moment. "Why are you here?" he asked Matty. "If Heero realizes you're with me and no one else is around, he'll tear my skin off."

Matty blinked at that, then gave the man the look. "Who is it that decided I was cute and had striking eyes...and a kissing mouth?"

Trowa grinned at that, cringing slightly before shaking his head.

"You do, don't you?" Cardle noted, considered his lips. "I hadn't really thought of that one."

Matty focused on the man.

"Oh yeah, I'm supposed to run," Cardle muttered, jumping slightly and starting to shift back.

"If you _leave_ me with him, I'm going to throw you to Heero," Trowa retorted. "Come on."

"I'll wander off, all the same," Matty informed the pair of them.

"I don't even know why you're here," Trowa retorted.

"Oh!" Cardle started slightly. "There's a guy named Weston. He thinks he's god's gift to anyone he wants to bed, and he was tagging along after Matt. I jumped in before anyone had to start fighting, though, so we've been looking for Yuy so he can decapitate me and be done with it."

"I'm almost positive what you just said makes sense," Matty noted skeptically. "So why doesn't it?"

Cardle snickered.

"Just come with me," Trowa retorted, giving them both looks. "If I even look at you wrong Yuy's glaring at me like I've got a deathwish...and god-help-me if he gets it in his head I'm being crude and you're not talking."

"What even happened, sir?" Cardle muttered, obediently starting to walk with the man. "You never did tell me."

"Because I'd rather not own up to it," Trowa retorted. "But if you must know, Yuy was whispering lover's words at the guy," he cast an accusatory glance at Matty. "And he got all bashful...like that! See? You can't tell me that's not cute!"

Cardle looked back to Matty, who was blushing.

"And now he's gonna get all flustered again," Trowa noted irritably, "and when Heero sees him he's going to cut off my head."

"You've never had anyone tell you you look cute like that?" Cardle asked Matty, blinking at him. "It's not just some...tease?"

"Why would I tease _him?_" Matty protested, indicating Trowa. He knew his cheeks still had to be red.

"Huh," Cardle scratched briefly at the side of his head, studying Matty's face. "I guess I can see that," he glanced at Trowa. "Um..." he looked back to Matty, "you seen Raymond or Ricci yet?"

"Ricci," Trowa agreed. "I told him just to go back to our room and read up. You have _no_ idea where your idiot-boyfriend is?"

Matty shrugged. "Last I knew, he was with you."

"Bah," Trowa retorted, looking around again. "Let's just go."

- -

Duo frowned as he wandered down another hall, stopping to look around again. He'd asked someone finally, and that person had said Brigadier Yuy had been heading in this direction, and someone else had said that direction, and yet a third had said back that way...around and around to the point that Duo'd realized that Heero was wandering. He had no destination that Duo could tell, so it was time to think like the other.

The problem was that Heero's thought processes were precise things, and wandering didn't fit into that mold.

What he really wanted to know was _why_ Heero felt he _could_ wander. He was in charge of the most sudden and drastic change of military protocol that Duo'd ever heard of. Their case could be argued in court, he knew that. They had enough information that had been jeopardized by the stupidity...well, men were always let in on private information. There wasn't much to do about that.

Knowledge was power, and power was control...and control was rank, and rank was power.

Duo smirked slightly to himself, trying to remember where that had come from. He knew he'd said it aloud before, and people had agreed—Wufei had agreed.

So how drunk were they when they had _that_ conversation?

Duo shook his head, wandering down another hallway. He'd been wandering when he'd found Quatre—wandering with a purpose. He'd been hoping it would work a second time, but then again, Quatre was a space-heart. That had to have some added effects. If Heero'd ever been a space-heart, he'd forced it out of himself.

"Brigadier?"

Duo turned, blinking at Raymond. He hadn't realized he wasn't alone in the hall.

"Brigadier?" the guy saluted. "Do you know where Brigadier Yuy is?"

"Hey! That's what I'm doing too!" Duo grinned at the man and gestured with his hand. "We can look together. My thoughts have been getting far too...weird," he shook his head. "Why are you trying to find him?"

- -

Wufei looked up as he came to the cross-section of a few halls, then looked around. Trowa, Matty, and Cardle were coming from his right, and Duo and Raymond were coming from his left. He gave the hall directly in front of him a hopeful look, but there was no one there.

"Hey...where's Heero?" Trowa asked, looking between Wufei and Duo.

"That's what I was trying to figure out," Duo returned, grinning at the man. "_What_ do you need him for?"

"A good lay?" Matty offered happily.

"That's what _we_ need him for," Duo retorted, grinning at the kid, then blinked. "Should you _be_ walking around with Trowa? There was a point yesterday when I was pretty sure Heero was going to rip off one of his appendages."

Matty's cheeks flared and he glared at Duo.

"Okay, okay..." Duo made a soothing gesture at him, then looked to Wufei.

"What?" Wufei asked.

"I need him to sign off," Trowa returned, gesturing irritably with a pile of papers he had in his hand. "I've been all over hell and creation looking for him, and I think he's died and gone to heaven, because I can't _find_ him."

Wufei blinked at him.

"I've wandered through more halls than I care to count," Duo agreed. "Nothing came of it—I need to talk to him."

Wufei blinked at the man, wondering if he'd been looking for Heero since the incident with Une. He'd said that's what he was doing, hadn't he?

"Some _guy_ grabbed me," Matty muttered irritably, extending his left arm and shoving up the sleeve. "He looked like Ranger," he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably, looking around at them all.

"Some guy who looked like Ranger grabbed you and bruised you?" Duo asked blankly.

"You didn't say anything about a bruise!" Trowa accused Cardle.

"I didn't feel it was my business," Cardle muttered, looking down. "I'm sorry."

"I just...it's nice that you're all here," Matty added, "but..."

"But strong arms to hold you would be preferred," Duo agreed, pursing his lips. "I'd offer, but the joke would fall flat."

Matty smiled up at him.

"And you don't think that's cute?" Trowa demanded of Cardle.

"I _said_ I found him attractive," Cardle retorted irritably. "Go dig at _him, **he**_ might argue," he indicated Raymond.

Matty looked like he could have stomped his foot, turning on the pair, but thought better of it and moved around to stand next to Wufei. He actually _leaned_ against Wufei, giving the other males petulant looks.

"So none of us know where Heero is?" Wufei asked, blinking back at the kid blankly.

"No," Duo agreed.

"Fian?" Matty muttered, then wormed under his arm. "I know you don't...but..."

Wufei would have rolled his eyes if the kid didn't seem very uncertain. He squeezed the kid, wondering what Heero'd think of that, then pulled up a text.

Duo and Trowa stared at him.

_Hey_, he typed, _everyone seems to be looking for you, but no one seems to be finding you. I didn't think you played hide and go seek, but if you do, you win_.

_That might be fun_, Heero noted with interest. _We could try it some time...in the practice arena...with the paint-ball guns_.

_That's an entirely different game, but it does sound intriguing_, Wufei returned in amusement. _Where?_

_I'm over in the soldier's lobby now. I wanted something to drink_.

"Soldier's lobby," Wufei noted, looking up and around to the group.

"I hate you," Duo informed him matter-of-factly.

"It's not _my_ fault you're both idiots," he made a gesture at Trowa, then looked down at Matty. "You're not going to kiss me again, are you?"

Matty laughed at that, covering his mouth with a hand.

"What?" Duo asked blankly.

"Heero said something about enthusiasm," Wufei returned, starting to walk and letting the boy loose. "I don't think it's really any of your business."

"That sounds _horrible!_" Matty protested, moving happily to follow him.

"That was the point," Wufei reassured him happily. "None of them really know what I'm willing to do, huh?"

Matty started giggling, then stopped quickly. He was completely willing to giggle in front of the five of them, but if even Tim was around, he'd avoid it.

Trowa muttered something to Cardle, and the man threw his arms into the air.

Wufei didn't know if he appreciated that he was leading such a strange procession. Matty was a few steps behind him and to his left, drinking from a pop-bottle he'd been carrying in a pocket of his cargo-jeans...that he hadn't had.

Wufei blinked at him.

"Huh?" Matty focused on him, then smiled. "I _told_ you I was sorry."

"Where'd the pants come from?" Wufei returned, ignoring the comment. He hadn't meant to bring it up in front of everyone, but the kid had appreciated it. He might not appreciate Trowa's attentions—fickle as they were—but he didn't mind Wufei's.

That made sense somewhere, probably.

"Oh," the guy extended one leg to admire the material. "I went over to the outfitters when you guys chased me away from Une. He got these for me—he was about having kittens when I insisted I needed a larger size."

"Larger?" Cardle asked in near disbelief. "You were wearing smaller?"

Matty turned and cast him a grin. "I don't really _flaunt_ myself, there is a _reason_ I changed the size."

"You could _fit_ in smaller?" Raymond demanded.

"It just fits his ass better," Duo gave the man a dismissive look. "I can see why he decided not to. His build is slim, and any tighter than that'd hug his curves. Did you _get_ some that size?" he added, meeting the guy's eyes. "I'm sure Heero'd love it."

Matty snickered and nodded, not quite looking at the others.

"The notion of military-issue cargo pants being hot disturbs me," Wufei informed them, giving them all looks.

Duo snickered wickedly, looking away.

"What?" Wufei demanded, not sure he really wanted to know.

"Nothing," Duo reassured him, giving him an innocent look. "I didn't say anything." He directed his eyes to the wall. "I was just thinking about Heero's..."

"Duo, you don't _lie_ very well," Wufei cut that off. "Don't try. You could have left it stand. Now tell me."

Duo laughed again, meeting his eyes. "There's a reason we don't _tell_ you why you catch us watching you in your cargos."

Wufei eyed him suspiciously as Cardle burst out laughing.

Duo shrugged, scratching at his head a moment before looking to Matty.

"Right," Wufei muttered, glad he was in the slacks and jacket. He'd never connected the pants with the rippling looks he could get, and he wasn't sure he liked the connection.

Matty sighed, moving closer to Wufei again. "Fian?"

Wufei met his eyes, wondering why the boy had picked that up again. He hadn't called him by that name since they'd first met.

"If Heero's busy...can I stay with you?"

"With me?" Wufei returned, not understanding that.

Matty nodded, looking back to his bottle. "I feel safe with you, and I feel..." he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably again, then met Wufei's eyes. "I just want to feel safe, and when Heero's busy..."

"That's all right," Wufei reassured him in Chinese. He had a feeling that Matty felt safe because Wufei was obviously Asian. Heero looked to be half-Japanese half...something else, the favor going to the other. Trowa looked to be the standard European stock...and Duo looked American. When he was blond, Quatre didn't look much like anything, but with his hair black, he looked...Persian. There was something almost exotic in his make, and it was muted when he was blond.

He blinked as the thought process wound to a close. Either Duo or Heero had once teased that they weren't the only bi ones in the group, and he hadn't been the only one to brush the comment off that day. Quatre'd launched himself into the deep-end, and Trowa seemed to be testing the water. Wufei'd never been curious enough to pursue, but thinking that Quatre looked _exotic_, of all things...he had a feeling he'd been spending far too much time with Heero, Duo, _and_ Matty.

"You speak Japanese, too, don't you?" Raymond asked in a tone that was too casual.

"Who?" Matty asked, looking around. "I do...they all do," he indicated Wufei. "I think they all speak Chinese, too."

"Not really," Trowa returned. "I wanted to learn fast, and Chinese wasn't a quick-study."

Wufei smirked at him.

"I know some rudiments of the language, but I can't even say I have the conversational down."

"I think I have the conversational," Duo noted thoughtfully, "but if we need another language we use Japanese or..."

"Or another language," Trowa cut him off firmly. "Raymond, the situation is too...strange...to casually ask about languages. You should have tried for eager and interested."

Raymond blinked at him.

"You were digging for information," Wufei explained. "The timing, cadence, and your body language didn't fit this...mess," he indicated Duo. "You could have sounded pissed and it'd have been less strange than that relaxed."

"Right, sir," the man returned thoughtfully, looking away from them. "I'll try and keep that in mind."

"Oh, sure, _now_ he's using the proper forms of address," Cardle muttered sardonically. "He can't keep his mouth shut when no one's around to _hear_ him, but now when people who matter are around..."

"In all reality," Duo noted, "it's better to keep the...perceived...disrespect private. In private, you know who you are and who you're dealing with, and they should too. In public, there are too many people who you _can't_ just brush off—and why don't you hold to your _decorum_ now?" he added to Trowa.

"Because I'm not annoyed that you're openly hitting on people in uniform," Trowa retorted. "You're _not_ eyeing Cardle like he's the cream and you're the cat."

Cardle blinked at Trowa.

"I seem to have this _boyfriend_," Duo retorted irritably. "And if _you_ don't trust me, either..."

"I said you _weren't_ doing it," Trowa retorted dryly, not looking around.

"You want something to drink?" Matty asked Wufei.

Everyone turned and looked at him, startled.

Matty grinned at them all and pointed at a vending machine just in sight up the way. "We're at the lounge, and I'm gonna try _not_ to jump on him in uniform."

Wufei grinned at that.

"If no one's around," Trowa noted dryly, "then it doesn't _really_ matter."

"Yet you've complained about it before," Matty noted.

"You were practically molesting him," Trowa retorted.

"Trowa?" Heero's voice was very calm and mildly curious.

Matty smirked at Trowa briefly, then turned and darted up the way.

"See what I mean?" Trowa hissed at Cardle.

"_What_ do you want me to say?" Cardle protested at him in exasperation. "I don't understand how you want me to react."

"You're the idiot who keeps putting his foot in his mouth," Wufei reminded the man, gesturing for Cardle to relax. "I guess Matty _is_ cute...in a way...but you _shouldn't_ be focused on it when he's got a _boyfriend_."

Trowa receded.

Wufei gave Cardle a look since the man hadn't receded. Trowa was almost begging for commiseration and understanding about Heero's displeasure. For whatever reason, he'd decided that Cardle should be the one to give it.

"You busy?" Duo asked with interest, looking Heero and Matty over as the main of the group reached the corner.

"Sorry," Matty muttered, starting to untangle himself from the other man.

"No," Duo gestured that away. "That's not what I mean. What are you doing back here? What have you been doing?"

"Killing time, waiting for Trowa and Quatre," Heero shrugged, not lowering his boyfriend. "Why?"

"I've been looking for you for like...an hour," Duo returned dryly. "It might be more by now."

"Why didn't you text me?" Heero asked blankly. "I've been waiting for _something_ to do."

"Oh..." Duo blinked, then gave the man a look. "I hate you, too."

Heero snorted at him, glancing between Cardle and Raymond. His focus changed back to Matty, and he began the process of unwinding their bodies...which it seemed to amuse Matty to circumvent.

"Okay, enough is enough," Wufei noted, moving forward and looping his arm around Matty's waist. He didn't think he really appreciated the sparkle that appeared when he met Heero's eyes over the guy's shoulder, and something about the way Matty's head turned toward him seemed dirty, but the teen did release Heero.

"Sign this," Trowa instructed, extending the papers he'd been holding. "As soon as you do that, I can go show the stuff to Quatre and get whoever it's going to be to go over it, too."

"Une said the auditorium is set up," Wufei noted, blinking down when Matty didn't move away from him. He was expecting another naughty look, but the teen seemed content to lean against him. "She wanted me to let you know, but I knew there was no point until the rest of it fell in place."

"Huh," Heero took the papers, pulling a pen from his pocket. "That's convenient." He signed.

"Shouldn't you _read_ that...sir?" Cardle asked, studying his face in confusion.

"Why?" Heero asked blankly, passing the paper back to Trowa.

The man gave him a confused look, obviously uncertain.

"I trust Trowa with more than my life," Heero added, probably realizing that the guy wouldn't understand. "I trust him with my honor. I may not trust him with _Matty's_ honor, but then again I don't think I could even trust _Wufei_ if Matty wasn't interested."

"That was convoluted," Matty muttered dryly. "I think we need to talk at some point."

"Any time," Heero returned, kissing him briefly. "It'd waste time for me to read through something Trowa'd prepared, and with how we work, it would offend him. We all know what we're doing and what we need to do, and we all know we'll do it. It makes things ten times easier that way...not to mention faster," he grabbed Matty's hand. "We could go back to the hotel for lunch, that's soon."

"Me and Quatre are going back to the hotel," Duo retorted, giving him a look. "We decided it an hour ago, so we get dibs."

"I'm going back to the hotel for lunch," Wufei informed them both dryly. "Dibs or no...so whatever little fantasies you perverts have in your head with that main room will have to be passed up."

Duo flashed him a grin that seemed almost childish.

"I wasn't being perverted," Heero retorted. "I want _lunch_ with _**Matty**_."

"Where is Quatre?" Trowa cut in before anyone else could speak. "Just tell me where to find _Quatre_."

"I'm here," Quatre moved from another hallway with an interested look. He had people trailing behind him, most in a group at his back. "What's going on? Matt? Can you get me a Dr. Pepper?"

"Right," Matty agreed, bouncing to the soda machine.

"I could watch that all day..."

The entire group turned to focus on a man coming from the hallway that was closest to them, he was looking at Matty, and the teen had stopped.

Trowa moved before anyone else could, even Heero, whose expression had turned icy cold...and decked the man. Whoever the man was cried out in alarm, falling hard. His expression was amazed and confused.

Silence fell.

"The fucker bruised Matt," he informed Heero, his eyes almost wild. "He has a bruise on his arm."

Heero glided forward as the man started pushing himself up from the floor with no less confusion...and Wufei realized he had about two seconds before all hell was going to break loose.

He wasn't entirely sure how he managed it, but he got between Heero and the downed soldier. His muscles were coiled like a spring, and tension was radiating from the group with Quatre. Heero's eyes were glittering, and his mouth was slightly open—he was about to speak.

"Don't say anything," Wufei ordered as the man behind him fell very still. He could feel the tension throughout his own body, ready to stop his friend if he could. He wasn't sure about that, really, Heero worked out _more_ than he did, and knew about as much from martial arts to street brawling. "Just stop right there and glare."

"If he _touched_..."

"No," Wufei cut that off, holding his ground. "Trowa will probably be confined a few hours for that, and you _have_ to be around since you _started_ that shit. Don't _touch_ him."

"If I'm in trouble anyway," Trowa noted, starting to unbutton his coat.

"That's a bad idea," Wufei muttered, glad that Heero'd stopped looming. He'd never really thought about it before, but he could actually understand why Une had backed off from Duo in the hospital. Both Trowa and Heero radiated an elegant sort of waiting-death. There was power to them both, and without the righteous indignation, Wufei knew he couldn't match them one on one, let alone the pair of them.

"Fucker," the man muttered, shoving Wufei at Heero—his words were for Trowa. "You fucker..."

Wufei stopped himself from turning on the man, realizing that Trowa and Heero would follow him into the beating. If he stepped in, there'd be no other way to describe it.

"You just shoved the Brigadier Chang," Cardle noted quickly. "And that's the Brigadier Barton. You might not want to..."

"_Bullshit!_" the man snapped—and Matty flinched.

Matty was really scared of the guy. The uncertainty was flowing from him in waves, and there was a tension to his body that made him look about to run.

This was going to end well.

Wufei pushed lightly at Heero's chest, grateful when the man backed away without any further urging...and Trowa tossed his jacket to Raymond.

If there was _anything_ Wufei could do, he needed to do it...but Wufei couldn't think of what that might be as Trowa tossed his button-up shirt to his man as well. Trowa was aware that decking the man the way he had was an unprovoked assault—Matty's bruise or no—and he wasn't a man to do things half-assed. One punch was nothing in the overall scheme of things—he'd get the same chastisement for the fight as the punch.

"Trowa...please," Matty muttered before Wufei could make up his mind, darting around he and Heero to stand between the man and the soldier. "Don't...don't get yourself in trouble," Matty added, moving in closer.

Trowa didn't look at him—his only change of focus was a brief glance at Heero, but he also didn't let Matty touch him. He was backing away.

"Get your bitch in line," the man snarled at Trowa.

Heero snarled, starting to move forward...but Trowa'd been about to act, anyway...and Matty went flying to the floor near Wufei's feet.

Duo chuckled coolly. "Une is going to have kittens," he noted, not moving to stop the fight as the pair came up against the wall. "Who's gonna take the fire for not stopping it?"

"I will," Cardle noted, his tone slightly sickened.

"The five of us have rank," Quatre returned blankly, looking around to him. "You're a soldier...I don't follow."

"Winner," one of the men behind the former blond started, moving forward. He looked familiar, though, and Quatre turned to look at him.

"If I can't do it myself," Heero snarled at the guy, "then I'll damn well let Trowa do it for me...stand down, Soung."

The man's eyes landed on Heero's in dismay.

Wufei snickered slightly at that, then heard a crack that was very near to breaking bone.

He turned and dived at Trowa, knocking him off the man before anymore damage could be done, then raised his legs to send the man sprawling backwards across the hall.

When he heard the sound of boots coming his way, he froze—so did Trowa.

MP were coming at them with firearms at the ready...and what had they seen? They'd seen Wufei attacking Trowa and then knocking the soldier away—or something close to that.

In spite of himself...Wufei started laughing.

It fucking _figured_.

- -

"What did you think you were _doing?_" Une railed at Wufei. "Just start brawling with..."

"I already told you you don't have the right of it," Wufei reminded her, moving to lean against one of the metal tables. He uncrossed his arms long enough to pick a can up from the thing, then looked back to the woman. "So stop asking rhetorical questions and finish ranting."

She turned on him.

"Go on," he suggested, gesturing casually.

"Don't you dare think I won't slap you," she growled at him.

"And don't _you_ dare think I have some qualm against hitting back," he returned.

She drew herself up.

"Weak women hold no interest for me," he reminded her, studying the top of the can a moment. "If you're going to be weak, then let me leave."

She crossed the distance, her hand already moving before she stopped moving, and he caught her wrist before the blow could land, staring back into her eyes.

She yanked her hand away, slapping his hand away and turning away from him. If she'd been a cat, she'd be all fluff and switching tail.

"Now that you've finally shut your mouth," he added pointedly, still watching her, "I can explain to you what _happened_."

She turned almost on her toes to stare directly back at him.

"You see, Heero and Matt were both wandering at random this morning."

The expression on her face darkened, and she started to open her mouth.

"That man? Weston?" he pulled the tab so the can opened. "He came across Matt in the soldier's lounge—from what I've gathered so far, he had the day off and nothing to do but wander himself." He studied her a moment longer, then recounted the events as he'd heard them from Cardle, Trowa, and Matt. He considered the story a moment to make sure he'd covered it. He'd had ten minutes to get those three versions and Heero's notices before the MP officer had come to haul him to Une.

There was something amusing in the fact that Trowa wasn't in the slightest amount of trouble. With what the officers had seen, the MP officers, they'd assumed it had been Wufei and Weston fighting with Trowa trying to split it up. Wufei had taken into consideration that all he'd had to do for the day was run errands, and decided he could take the blame.

Une's arms were crossed.

"So to make a long story short," he summed up, "Trowa's passing information on to Duo and Quatre's passing information on to his guys. Matt and Heero got to go back to the hotel for lunch," he made a face, "and I'm sitting here looking pretty for your amusement."

She glared at him, massaging her wrist as she turned away.

"I didn't _hurt_ you, did I?" he demanded, pushing away from the table. He'd been purposefully goading her, true, but that didn't mean he really _was_ a bastard—most of the time.

"When I yanked away," she admitted, studying her wrist glumly a moment, then offered it to him when he neared. "You're not lying to me?"

"No, today's complicated enough without that," he studied the skin a moment. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he let her go, frowning. "Weston deserved it, you can't make me believe otherwise."

"You'll have to make your case to the MP," she noted with a sigh.

"To clear my name," Wufei noted. "But for a brawl with no real damage, I'll get a couple hours solitary. To prove it's Trowa who'd been fighting would take another two hours, and in that time I could be done with my...punishment," the idea amused him. He was actually looking forward to the meditation he'd use to pass the time.

"Unless Weston said it was Trowa," she reminded him.

Wufei snorted at that. "Trowa has shit to do, Une, and I'm playing errand boy. I'd rather make myself a martyr, thanks all the same."

"Wufei!" she protested, drawing herself up.

He grinned at her, then finished off the can. "I need to go to the bathroom and let everyone know what's going on," he noted, pulling his phone out and starting for the door. "I'll see you in a few hours."

"Chang!" she protested, stepping after him.

Wufei grinned over his shoulder at her, then fixed his expression in an annoyed grimace, storming from the room. He had his phone out as the MP surrounded him with curt demands that he follow them—but his rank put him above the cuffing they wanted to do to him. He sent the message to his friends quickly, then tucked the phone into his jacket breast-pocket.

"I'm going to the bathroom," he added as Une stormed from the room behind them, "and then we can continue on."

"General," the man in charge saluted her, then turned with his men to quickly follow Wufei.

Some days...some days he wished he hadn't bothered getting up—or at least that he hadn't bothered putting on the uniform.

It was definitely time to meditate, and the flash of movement that was Matty disappearing down the hall made him feel sad. He'd meant to keep his word and have his tagalong, but the situation had spiraled well beyond his scope.

Maybe Heero wouldn't be busy during that time...Wufei really really hoped the man wouldn't be.


	8. Chapter 8

**Eight**

"Understandably," Duo muttered to the gathered men in uniforms, "many of you are...upset...with Brigadier Yuy, but I'm not entirely sure you all understand the current situation. You're all aware that the colony A02227 started...an...application...for independence, if you will." He rolled his eyes, using the control he'd been given to turn on the large screen against the wall behind him. It was a picture of the forty-seven supposed prisoners of war. He clicked the button again so it cycled to a picture of Matty they'd all seen before—a picture of him looking at the bruise on his arm while he talked to the ship with the supplies.

"I've seen that kid," a guy near the front spoke up, studying the picture with evident interest. "I thought I saw him earlier."

"He's right there," Duo noted, pointing to Matty—the guy had moved into the room as Duo'd made his opening speech, and was standing in Heero's arms as everyone turned to look. "Sorry, Mattox," he added as Matty pulled away from Heero quickly. "Here," he added, hitting the button again so it showed one of the shots of the 'prisoners' waiting for their personal interviews. "On January twentieth, A.C. 202, at approximately fifteen-hundred hours, rebels, malcontents, and anarchists took control of a civilian shuttle and took forty-seven prisoners hostage."

Everyone was looking at him again.

"With the assistance of the other four Brigadiers raised to rank with me, we former gundams infiltrated the colony via a commodity-supply ship, and rescued the civilians." He clicked the button again so it showed another shot of the forty-seven prisoners. "The cost to the rebels was twelve casualties and forty wounded in direct combat—a greater number due to explosions and fighting the subsequent fires."

He had to suppress a grin at that, and wished that Trowa'd agreed to let him be an ass for the presentation.

"Nearly a month passed," Duo went on, "before an anomaly occurred." He clicked the button and the picture changed to a silent recording of a group of mobile suits in a fight with others. It made some of the men jump, and some of them lean forward intently. The eyes were glued on the screen. "In a strange maneuver that we weren't fully sure of, a small group of these soldiers broke free of the barricade and disappeared into space—while some," he hit the pause button as it showed a machine.

There was a button that mobile suits had been equipped with after the eve wars that declared surrender. When that button was active, no suit could attack it—the programming simply did not allow for violent actions against that suit—and with the status set, the machine would _not_ self-destruct. The shot Duo'd stopped on was one that most of the men would recognize. The flagging of the MS as a surrendered object. The machine itself was outlined, the suit-style named. The distance between the two machines, the amount of heat, and the status of the cockpit door were listed, and the entire thing would flash white.

"You see, this was a ploy," Duo noted, hitting play again so it showed machines swooping in to take the surrendered one into custody. "This ploy allowed at least one suit to escape the colony un-caught...and for one man...one of the former first lieutenant Deroy Hanager of the fifty-seven specials, A.K.A. Ranger," he clicked the button so it pulled up the man's stats. It showed the picture of when he joined and the last picture he'd had taken while properly in service, as well as his fingerprints and physical stats listed. "It allowed Hanager to escape to _this_ colony," he pounded the podium with his hand as he eyed the men and women in front of him. "To _this_ colony. The rebels planned extensively and in secret—not throwing up any warning signs of their discontent with the hope that if their first plan failed, they'd have men free to enact any _further_ plans they came across." He surveyed the stricken looking men a long moment.

Matty shifted so his back was to the screen.

Duo clicked the button again, glancing at the screen. "Hanager left this colony and headed to earth." The shot was of Ranger in Matty's store, standing happy as you please as he watched Lu playfully flirt with Matty. "To follow her," he clicked to a shot of Lu smiling impishly at the camera in full uniform. The background was blurred, and no one knew _who_ had taken the picture. It had just been in the database—it'd probably been Zechs for her to smile so openly. "Colonel Lucretzia Noin of the unit five Preventers. She was on earth visiting with us," he gestured back toward Heero, Trowa, and Quatre. "Meanwhile, Brigadier Milliardo Peacecraft," he flicked to a shot of the man from an E.S.A. summit, "attempted to remain out of sight and out of mind...which brings us back to the network that had been set up prior to the...first...hostage situation."

The group muttered.

"Some of you may have noticed Minister Darlian," he flicked to a picture of Relena when she'd been making a speech about 27's independence, "advocating for the colony. No one was happy about this—but life isn't easy and isn't usually fair." He clicked the button to a shot of Relena crying when she'd been talking to Heero. He kept a history of important calls on his laptop, and that conversation had warranted saving. It also warranted more muttering from the crowd.

"That's right," Duo agreed, meeting eyes as he leaned against the podium again. "The rebels—or let's be blunt. The former Colonel Marshal Gerrange of the forty-first MS Unit A...A.K.A. Rabid, A.K.A. Rab A.K.A Marsh." He clicked the button so it showed Gerrange's information. "The former Colonel Gerrange had set up for Zechs Marquise to be kidnapped and held hostage to induce Relena Peacecraft into cooperating."

Another mutter ran the crowd.

"On February sixteen, A.C. 202, Marquise was taken hostage," Duo repeated, looking around again. "And on February twenty-fifth, in an attempt to save the man, a selected contingent of soldiers entered V09613 and found a building that had been used to hold the lightning count and many soldiers."

He clicked the button again so it showed the building.

It was a large building.

"What we thought of as a small rebellion mostly confined to 27 has proven to be greater than anticipated." He clicked the button again so it showed a view of the MS that had attacked the day they'd gotten their call came into view. "Much greater, with armed MS."

The mutter rushed the crowd again.

"So as you can see," Duo clicked again, going through a series of images that showed the threat, "what happened this morning was not simple whim. Some of the soldiers who had not fully left the military were found to be in Gerrange's camp. Information that the Preventers gathered on the gundams, technology constructed based on that information, and project files that had not been investigated are all listed under the black-ops branch of information. Selected few," he gestured to the room at large, "are given access to that information...and some of the men in Ranger's camp are known to have access."

The mutters came again, a little angrily as the men realized the full implications behind the recode. Most of them had probably assumed, but having it confirmed was something else entirely.

Duo let the mutters continue and peak, tapping the control into his left hand patiently. The rest of the presentation would get directly to the point and bring up any guilt, and he wanted this annoyance to pass before invoking that.

There were definite benefits to knowing what little a space-heart could do—and that went beyond being naughty and trying to seduce Quatre.

"On March twenty-ninth," Duo spoke up when it had started to quiet, "A.C. 202 at twenty-one hundred hours, Gerrange contacted Colonel Noin with the edict that if the barricade was not removed within one hour's time, he would send soldiers out to attack it." Another mutter moved through the room. "What many of you may not know is that Colonel Noin and Gerrange had once been on friendly terms—understandably, her feelings toward him had become less warm when he kidnapped her boyfriend. The conversation turned into an exchange of words that no one could fault the Colonel for, and Gerrange sent a first wave of soldiers out to attack." He clicked the button so it showed Lu's first shots of the MS. "Backup was called for, fighting entered into...and a series of skirmishes ended with Colonel Noin critically injured—she's currently in the hospital with the Brigadier Marquise at her bedside. I've spoken with her daily, and am happy to say she's recovering nicely. She should be removed from the I.C.U. this evening or tomorrow morning."

Duo hadn't gotten a chance to tell that to his friends, and he wished that Wufei wasn't locked away in confinement to hear it as well. He'd gotten Zechs' call as he was heading to the front of the room, and probably shouldn't have worked it into the carefully planned speech—but there was nothing to do for it. If Trowa wasn't going to let him be an ass, he'd add his own two cents another way.

Heero ran a hand down his face, and Trowa ran one through his hair. Quatre's head turned slightly toward the others, but he remained leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"This attack," he clicked to the next picture of the fighting, "or...battle, ended abruptly as men...with access to the black room," he added pointedly, "scrambled the satellites surveying the earth. With that blow, we lost an hour's worth of surveillance on the planet entry—and only a fool would misunderstand why that's important. The rebels have landed on earth—with help of their _still_ working network."

The crowd broke into a babble at that, protests and anger, dismay and confusion swarming through the tones he could hear.

He focused on Quatre, noting that his boyfriend was considering the crowd with the same set expression he always had when focused.

"_Due_," Duo raised his voice again so it boomed across the room through the mic, "to the uncertain nature of _all_ our information, Brigadier General Yuy decided that one or two days of missed work is nothing compared to the enemies having access to the plans of _highly classified weaponry_."

The room fell silent...so silent, he thought he'd hear a pin drop if his own ears weren't ringing from the sound of his own voice.

"No man that the space-hearts don't clear will be given access to the black-ops information. _No_ man," he added pointedly, staring around and meeting as many eyes as he possibly could. "No man, woman, or _dog_...no child, no girlfriend, no _ranked_ officer will have access until _Yuy_ codes your access keys."

The silence was tense.

"Gerrange..._**Rab**_, has men throughout the colonies and across the planet, and the very integrity of our military is now considered under fire. Starting today, starting _now_, we will be working to find any man loyal to Rab. _Any_ man, even if he's just your old buddy," Duo looked them all over again, seeing consternation in a face or two. "Starting _**now**_, we fully intend to find every last _one_ of you...and deal according to your treason."

The outburst that followed was a little tamer than Duo'd expected. Men jumped to their feet, yelling and gesturing at him as they did so...but no one pushed forward and no one got knocked over.

Soldiers flooded into the room and lined the walls as Quatre led Heero and Trowa down the aisle, ignoring the shouting that was directed at them—even though it did taper down when the soldiers lining the wall were fully noticed.

Quatre smiled briefly at Duo, taking the microphone from him. "I've spent this morning gathering up men and women with my same talents, and the lot of us are going to spend as long as it takes to go through each and _every_ one of you," he looked them all over. "I have twenty-five men and women waiting in rooms around this area, and one by one each and every one of you will come with the escorts to these rooms. If this requirement is offensive to you, then you'll have to deal with it on your own. Me and my people do not care, nor do we intend to hear it. In a few moments, refreshments will be offered in this room, and with cooperation, we should be finished before five tonight. Cooperate, ladies and gentlemen. Personally, I'd rather not miss my supper."

- -

Matty sighed as he moved down another hallway, arms crossed. He hadn't been overjoyed when Heero'd been spirited away from him by ranked officers. He'd waited in the area until he'd heard raised voices, then decided to find something else to do. Unfortunately, Trowa was having a similar meeting, Quatre was doing interviews, and Wufei hadn't reappeared, though it had to have been two hours.

He sighed, dropping into a seat under a window. Light from outside was shining in on the small couch, and the hall was empty. He sat there a long moment, then turned to look out the window at the other side of the colony.

It sparked a memory in him that made him smile to himself. When he'd met with Heero on L-4...on 22, he'd been thrilled to see the colony out the window like that. When Heero'd noted that the Winner mansion was in sight, he'd been excited—the rest of the night hadn't been bad either, but the moment when he'd seen the Winner mansion...it struck him, somehow. It was almost like he could feel Heero's heat along his back, and feel his mouth about to whisper in his ear...

He'd probably seemed childish that night. Heero'd certainly been smiling about it, but...

Duo was 02.

Matty sat up as a ball of emotion swam through his stomach.

Duo was the pilot the military had called 02...the man said to call himself the god of death.

The man who'd killed the people who'd killed his mother.

Matty shoved out of the seat, starting back the way he'd come. He didn't like to think of his mother—the grief still tore at him when he gave it the chance. He had, however, promised himself to do one thing if he ever got to meet the man who'd avenged his mother...and it didn't matter that he'd known the man for four months.

It was strange to think that after all those years, he'd actually meet the man...and his dad probably _knew_. His dad...had his dad realized? He hadn't really ever talked to his dad about the pilots—not more than to say that Heero was who he was and the others who they were...and then the painful conversation about Wufei and A0207, but that paled in comparison.

"What's up?" Duo muttered, looking up from where he was pouring himself a cup of coffee. There were other men in the room who'd fallen silent on his approach, but Matty didn't care.

He threw himself at Duo and wrapped his arms around the man's neck tightly. The ball of emotions gave-out, though, under the torrent of sheer grief.

"Whoa..." Duo muttered as he started to sob, steadying them and raising his arms. "Whoa...what's the matter?"

"Thank you," Matty returned, burying his face in the man's shoulder as he tried to stop crying. "Thank you..."

"What?" Duo protested, starting to pull away. "Matt? Are you okay?"

"What's going on?" one of the other men demanded irritably. "Maxwell..."

"Bite your tongue," Duo snapped at him in an unmistakable tone of command. "Matty..."

Matty didn't bother trying to talk, grateful in more ways than one. When he'd heard...when his father had broke down crying at a news report...when his father had sang the praises of the pilot zero-two...they'd both cheered the vengeance. It probably wasn't quite right that the fiery death Duo had perpetrated had brought cheering, but had it been any worse than the way she'd died to begin with? A bomb going off in the room above her because some bureaucrat had a room there? He'd assumed then when he thought about it, that he'd give the man a hug...he'd thought it'd just be a brief hug and he'd have to be content...but Duo...Duo was his friend. He wasn't _only_ zero-two...he was Duo, he was War...

"Matty?" Duo persisted, wiping the tears from under his eye with one hand. "Are you okay?"

"You killed him," Matty whispered back.

Duo's expression blanked instantly, and his hand stopped moving.

"You killed the bastard who killed my mom," Matty whispered, pulling away to wipe at his eyes. If he'd taken the moment longer to think about it he should have, he could have avoided that blankness...but he wasn't accusing Duo of anything...Duo'd avenged his mother.

Matty gave up on wiping the tears away that had started again anyway, and pulled Duo back into a hug—and the hug Duo returned was comforting.

"I see...you're busy," the man who'd been bitching before noted quietly. "I think I understand what happened today. I'll...talk to you later, Brigadier." There was a sound that was almost sharp, but Matty didn't bother looking around as the other men in the room also muttered like that, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind themselves.

"Are you all right?" Duo whispered, grabbing a napkin from the countertop and using it to wipe at Matty's face.

"I just..." Matty felt a fresh wave of tears, and realized there'd be no way he could _talk_ to Duo about the matter for a while. He wrapped his hands around Duo's and kissed the bump where his thumb met the rest of his hand, wrapping both his hands around Duo's as best he could. He'd never realized how much bigger than him that Duo was, but both of his hands weren't enough to cover that one.

Duo made a slightly amused noise, raising his other hand to lift Matty's chin and study his eyes.

Matty looked away, leaning against Duo's chest. He knew he was about to start crying again, and Duo looked dumbfounded—reassuring, but completely lost.

"What's going on?" Heero asked blankly, moving into the room. "Matty?" he demanded, breezing forward and pulling Matty to his chest. Matty went willingly, not bothering to fight the tears. "Rosund told me that Mattox was upset," he sounded slightly amused. "It's amazing how bitchy men can be until you snap something about your boyfriend being upset—I'm not entirely sure if they understood, or if they hadn't realized I _had_ a boyfriend."

"Bunch of idiots not to," Duo noted quietly, looking back to Matty.

"What's wrong?" Heero muttered, moving so he could look down at Matty's face—but the sympathy in his voice broke the bit of self-control he'd managed to regain.

"He said...he told me thank you," Duo said quietly. "Said I...I killed the bastard...who killed his mom."

Heero stopped, then wrapped his arms around Matty—which made him cry even more.

"I don't understand," Duo muttered quietly. "I didn't even know she was dead."

"He said that she was in a building that was bombed by Oz," Heero returned quietly. "I haven't asked more after that—all I know is that in one of your fights, you...defeated...someone involved."

"And you're only _now_ telling me?" Duo demanded, a bite in his tone.

"Honestly, Duo? It slipped my mind," Heero kissed Matty's head. "That was the night back on L-4 before he got grabbed—the day we met Spencer. We'd been muttering about what we could say to Quatre if he were at the mansion...it was before we told him who we were, remember? When I got into the mansion Quatre was waiting for me, and...I...said one of the things..."

Matty jerked his head up to look at Heero in disbelief. The comments Heero'd made that he could say in the foyer of the mansion had been to do with removing boxers.

Heero grinned down at him, his eyes sparkling before he focused on Duo again. "Quatre didn't...punch me...or anything...like I thought he would. I actually _made_ a move on him...like...back to the wall and everything...and he didn't hit me until I pointed out his reaction was...different." He snickered, looking back down to Matty. "Now we know why...but I pissed him off and the rest of that day was me trying to smooth his feathers...and the next day," he looked across the room. "The next day was when they took the shuttle."

Duo ran a hand through his hair as he thought, then moved forward and pulled Matty into another hug. "I will do _anything_ for you," he said quietly, studying Matty's eyes. "I can't imagine what our lives would be without you..."

Matty laughed at that, hugging him even tighter.

"If something I did in that war did good," he added, pulling away to meet Matty's eyes again, "then I'll be more easy about it...but really, I'd rather not think about what I did, all right?"

Matty nodded, scrubbing at his face again.

"And if you ever come throw yourself at me in front of other people again, we might end up with Heero on our asses."

Matty started laughing at that, and hugged the other again, appreciating the moment Duo let it continue.

"Now, if you come in private..." Duo muttered in his ear, eyes raising to Heero's.

"I'd be worried if you didn't have Quatre...maybe," Heero noted, moving forward and ruffling Matty's hair. He leaned forward and kissed the top of Matty's head again—he was eyeing Duo as he did it, because the man hadn't moved to back away at all. For some reason, he leaned down and kissed Matty properly—it was an awkward position, and Duo wasn't letting go.

Heero started laughing wickedly when he pulled away, kissing Matty a second time, then sighed and started for the door. "You're too damn lucky," he informed Duo. "Rosund will tell people you need left alone—but I still have to code the cards."

"You _are_ the one who did it," Duo retorted, grinning slightly at his friend as he let Matty go. "Don't look to _me_ for sympathy."

"I'll just look to you for bombastic speeches," Heero retorted...and disappeared from the room.

"It was _not_ bombastic," Duo retorted, then looked around...and blinked at the floor.

Matty blinked back at him, then looked down as well—to a puddle of coffee under Matty's feet. He blinked at it a moment longer, then shifted back as he realized something.

His shoes were wet.

"Son of a..."

"My shoes aren't wet," Duo noted, extending his leg to admire one of the shiny shoes he had on.

Matty stepped on his foot.

- -

Wufei yawned as he moved toward the door to the room his phone said Duo was in, looking around the hall. There were still men in the auditorium, and the soldiers had eyed him as he'd passed. They wouldn't have _stopped_ him, he knew that, but he'd avoided nearing the doors anyway.

He'd gotten into his meditative state without any issues, and he'd given-over into sleep toward the end. The men entering to tell him his time was up had scared the crap out of him, and as soon as they'd given him back his jacket, he'd dug out his phone and found his companions.

"I don't know if you should go in," one of the men he recognized—didn't remember his name, but knew his face—noted quietly. "There was something going on with that Williams boy earlier."

Wufei gave him a confused look, then started for the room again. When he pushed into the room, he thought it might be empty...but a moment later, he realized that Duo was curled up on the end of the couch, and Matty was sitting at the other end, playing a game on his phone.

"Oh, hey, Fian," Matty greeted him happily, moving his foot—to kick Duo in the butt. Duo's legs were stretched out down the couch, and Matty was using them as an armrest. Matty himself was curled into the remaining space. "How'd your solitary confinement go?"

"I mediated for a while, then fell asleep," he shrugged, watching as Duo pushed up tiredly from where he'd been at. "What happened? You okay?" as he'd asked, he'd realized that Matty looked like he'd been crying. There was something to his eyes.

"Evidently," Duo said, pushing himself up, "I killed the bastard who killed his mother," he gestured at the teen and quirked his eyebrows in warning.

Wufei looked down to Matty blankly.

Matty smiled back at him and shrugged. "Make this do what I want it to do," he added, offering the phone over.

"I told you," Duo returned happily, "you _can_ figure it out."

"I've been trying to for like...fifteen minutes," Matty retorted, rising up on his knees as Wufei took the phone...and Duo's screensaver came up. For Wufei's benefit, it was a pair of men doing what Duo called 'interesting things.'

Matty broke into giggles, yanking Wufei's wrist hard so he could see the screen properly.

"You're retarded," Wufei informed Duo, who'd smirked. "You know that, don't you?"

Duo laughed.

"Holy shit!" Matty looked up to Duo in disbelief. "_Was_ that you?"

"I was holding the camera," Duo agreed, the smirk returning.

Wufei'd never heard that. He let the phone go promptly...and Matty's laughter turned to a naughty belly laugh.

"He normally throws it at me as soon as that pops up," Duo added as Matty scrambled to grab the thing. "I'm assuming the only reason he didn't that time was because you were so amused...see? He's happy to make you happy, too."

"You're stupid," Wufei informed the man, wiping his hands on his pants.

"You normally bruise me with the phone when I have it set to that setting," Duo reminded Wufei happily as Matty focused back on the screen. "So just because I'm pointing out the obvious doesn't mean I'm dumb."

Wufei grinned at that.

"The question, though," Duo added, starting around the couch. "Is why you were _watching_ that little video."

"What are you doing, anyway?" Wufei muttered, turning away from his friend to see the screen when Matty held it. He'd been watching to the extent that he'd have dropped it when it looped, but arguing that at Duo wouldn't fly.

"He has a lock on it that I have to trigger," Matty explained. "I just have to figure out what the pattern is."

Wufei grinned, looking the face over a moment, then took Matty's hand and pressed his finger to a few icons...the phone showed a sweeping flame taking the desktop over, and Matty started to grumble...but that was only one of Duo's patterns. Wufei used the guy's hand for a second, then smirked as he realized something that Matty probably wouldn't realize.

"Don't!" Duo muttered, disengaging Wufei's hand from the teen's. "Don't just _show_ him."

"Matty? How do you put a giraffe in a fridge?"

Matty looked up at Wufei as Duo gave him a disgusted look. "You'd have to like...cut it up," Matty returned, thinking about it.

"You put the giraffe _in_ the fridge," Wufei retorted. "How'd you put a lion in?"

"You'd put it in?" Matty asked, thinking about that, too.

"Silly," Wufei muttered as Duo started trying to cover his mouth. "You have to take the giraffe out first."

Matty started laughing at that, then tilted his head slightly...and clicked a few buttons. The screen turned to one of Duo's favorite music videos, and Matty laughed in a pleased fashion.

"Over complication can ruin the simplest laid plans," Wufei noted, grinning at Duo, who was glowering. "Remember that...and know that Duo can key in a fifteen-touch chain."

Duo snickered, turning the grin onto Matty. "When you're on a long flight and your laptop died...you have to do _something_."

Matty laughed at that, then offered the phone over. "Do it again."

- -

"Tomorrow you're doing that presentation again," Une informed Duo as she moved into the little room he'd taken over. "And the day after that."

Duo looked up to her in disbelief.

"It will take three presentations to cover the staff to the extent we _need_ it covered," she added, pouring herself a cup of coffee. "And since you started it, you'll finish it."

"No, Heero started it," Duo retorted. "_Heero_ will finish it. If we're going to be here a few more days, I'd rather go spend time with Lu."

She glowered at him.

"Trowa could even do the presentation—or Wufei," he added. "The only reason I did it was because Wufei got himself locked up for no good reason."

"No, I meditated," Wufei protested, looking up from where he and Matty were studying Duo's phone. The desktop hadn't flamed yet, but all it took was one wrong choice.

Une put her free hand on her hip.

"Seriously," Duo returned, studying her eyes. "On top of that..."

"Hey!" Quatre burst into the room with slightly reddened cheeks. "Guess what we just found?"

Wufei and Duo focused on him sharply as he saluted Une in passing. "About three guys...seems to start with first lieutenants...no one higher has been more than friends."

"Three?" Une demanded, sounding sickened.

"At least three," Quatre agreed, meeting her eyes. "Ranger's pissed," he added, looking off to the side as an evil grin lit his face. "He's absolutely pissed about something, but there's no telling what."

"You really are just that evil, aren't you?" Duo asked in amusement. "That's cool."

Quatre laughed, and brushed him off.

Matty took the phone from Wufei, considering it a moment...and hit a button. "Damn!" he muttered as the desktop flamed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Sorry," he muttered, lowering the phone to look at them. "I thought I'd just...just try since you were talking."

"Good job," Wufei returned dryly.

Matty hit him in the arm.

"So, tomorrow I do the presentation," he noted, "and Duo sits with Lu so Zechs can unwind...and then we all live happily ever after?"

"I just had a really wicked idea," Quatre noted, looking them all over.

"What?" Une asked in a too calm voice.

"I have thirty guys," Quatre returned, looking around to her. "We set up tomorrow's presentation for all the base, have fifteen entrances, and play Duo's pretty little speech on every screen leading up to the auditorium....at least the part that matters, anyway. Play clips of the other parts of the speech...but repeat the note that we're looking for traitors. Anyone who doesn't show up in the auditorium will _be_ a traitor unless they can show valid proof they couldn't make it in."

Une stared at him.

"We pull the guilty or associated idiots out of the line," Quatre shrugged at her. "We send them to another room...so maybe only ten entrances. That way there can be breaks and a group of five to judge the guilty," he snickered, looking around to Duo. "Had I ever mentioned that I love pissing people off?"

"No," Duo returned, moving closer to him. "But it's hot."

Une gave him a dirty look.

Quatre laughed happily, then looked around to Matty with interest.

"What?" Matty asked, blinking back at him.

"There's a thread of you in him," he explained, indicating Duo. "What are you doing?"

Matty showed Quatre Duo's phone and hit a button—the animation of the desktop burning up played.

Quatre blinked at him, then looked back to Duo.

Duo grinned. "We were passing time."

"Right," Quatre agreed, shaking his head and looking around to Une. "So what do you say? Shouldn't we get started?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Nine**

Rab glared at the computer as Qingfu rubbed at his eyes, thinking. He'd been trying to hack into the database since he'd first realized his information hadn't been wrong.

The entire database had been re-encoded. There wasn't a scrap of similarity between what it had been and what it was—not one _inch_.

"It's Yuy or Maxwell," Rab spat, pacing away from the other man. "It's...it has to be Yuy or Maxwell..."

"I don't care _who_ it is," Qingfu snapped back. "It doesn't matter who it is, because I don't know either of them and _still_ have to start from scratch."

"What the hell did they do?" Ranger demanded, glaring at Qingfu's head. "Why is it that two days ago you could get into any part of the database without signing on, and now you can do nothing?"

"Because they _changed_ it," Qingfu repeated for the millionth time. "They created a new firewall, and new catches."

"And you can't just figure out the weak spots?" Ranger snapped.

"It took me _two_ years to find _any_ weaknesses last time," Qingfu returned, turning on the man. "And that was two years of me spending nights awake on my laptop and days with the puzzle in my head."

"We don't _have_ that much time," Rab snarled.

"Obviously," Qingfu retorted irritably. "You'll have to find someone else who can hack—and you should probably find someone who _knows_ the pilots anyway."

Rabid licked his lips as his phone buzzed and blinked at the screen. The others looked at him as he hit the button and raised it to his ear.

"We're so screwed," Reiter hissed. "Maxwell pulled everyone into an auditorium, and they have a bunch of those damn space-hearts doing interviews. They took Shmidt, Hoxja, and Viernan already...and I'm done."

"What?" Rab demanded, eyes widening. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the space-hearts can tell who lies," the man snapped back. "I can't leave the room until I'm pulled into my interview, and they're playing the information they've got about you on a screen, just so I know what this is all about." He swallowed. "There isn't anyone left in here. It's just me now...and there's _nothing_ I can do."

Rabid closed his eyes.

"They re-set the entire system," he added quietly. "From top to bottom...nothing is the same as it was before, and no one...shit, someone's coming."

Rabid closed his phone as the line cut, looking around to Ranger.

"What?" Ranger asked. "What is that look?"

"Reiter just confirmed that the entire system was reset," Rabid explained. "And...he said everyone from black-ops is gone. They're all getting interviewed by the space-hearts, and he's the only one left."

Ranger stared at him.

"I think it's time to get drunk," Rabid added, looking toward the window. "Where's J?"

"He was out on the bluff," Qingfu muttered, leaning forward so his hands covered his mouth and his elbows were on his knees. "You think that'd be enough to kill me? To jump off, I mean?"

Ranger and Rabid focused on him sharply.

He looked between them both skeptically. "You can't tell me you don't think we're done," he noted. "You can't honestly tell me that this doesn't mean we're done...you _know_ they'll find a way to weed everyone from the base out, and then we'll have _nothing_."

"The guys in block-ops can escape," Ranger snapped. "We can get people _in_."

"With the space-hearts eating their soul?" Qingfu retorted, sitting up. "You're serious? With the shit _you_ can do, you don't think that trained men will have more?"

"That space-heart shit is nonsense," Rabid snapped back. "A bunch of..."

"Then how did Ranger know about that kid's phone?" Qingfu demanded, focusing back on Rab. "Then _how_ did everyone get grabbed from black-ops? Reiter believes and he knows he's screwed...if you honestly think there's nothing to the space-heart crap then you're a bigger fool than I thought."

Rab stared at him.

Qingfu shook his head, sitting back again and running his hands through his hair. He stood after a moment, and started for the door. "I'm gonna go see if that drop would kill me or not. See you in hell if it will," he gestured dismissively at them, and started for the door.

Ranger looked to Rabid, uncertain.

"When you decided that kid's phone was weird...why did you think it?"

Ranger licked his lips and shrugged. "It didn't seem _right_," he noted quietly. "The kid's story made perfect sense, the facts we'd found supported it...but it still seemed wrong, like the kid was lying." He sneered as the thought of the boy crying out came to his mind. "Pretending he didn't have a clue...and you _know_ the only reason the gundams came at all was because of _him_."

Rabid nodded his agreement, sneering slightly himself. It'd been Hoxja who'd found that part out. Sainted-fucking-Winner hadn't been lying when he'd said Yuy'd sent them. It really _hadn't_ been anymore than the pilots chasing after a piece of ass.

Rabid hadn't thought it would be possible to hate the pilots anymore than he had, but finding out that one of them was laying with a _boy_ had sickened him.

"I bet you if we got that boy," Ranger muttered quietly, "we could get them out of our hair entirely."

Rabid looked back to him, frowning slightly.

"If we had that boy, we could make them..."

"Ranger," Rabid said pointedly, "we _had_ that boy. What happened when we _had_ that boy?"

Ranger frowned.

"No, the last thing we want to do is take one of their toys. I'll bet you anything that the only reason they found our place on 13 is because Peacecraft is Noin's lover and Maxwell tails after Noin like a dog in heat—not to mention the princess herself. She claps her hands and Yuy goes running to fetch and carry for her. I'd forgotten about that...so no. We don't want to touch anyone connected to the damned pilots at all—but maybe if we could kill the pilots themselves," a slight sneer crossed his face. "They should have hung at the gallows for what they did anyway...but the government won't take them. The government is scared of them—Une herself cowers when they raise their voices."

Ranger frowned a little more.

"Did you just suggest taking that Williams boy hostage?" Jaden demanded, moving into the room properly to glare at them. "What's up with Rin, anyway? He was cursing that he drop to the ground wasn't far enough."

Ranger and Rabid exchanged a look, then shifted how they stood to confront the man.

He'd have to be convinced before he'd agree with them at all—and that might take some doing.

- -

"Prints."

Wufei moved forward and rested his fingers into the molded scanner. Not for the first time, he wondered if the makers of the thing had just warmed up the wax and crammed their hands down into it. It was a random thought, and had nothing to do with anything, but it had come and gone.

The previous day, while Heero had recoded the passes for the black-ops, Trowa and Duo had run around getting things ready. He and Matty had spent a majority of the day playing the key-game on their phones. Wufei had tried to get Duo to leave his, since he had the settings already in place, but Duo'd flat-refused to leave his phone behind.

In the end, he and the teen had gone back to the hotel room for Wufei's personal laptop, and he'd spent a good twenty minutes coding some automatic settings before letting the boy have his fun. He didn't understand why Matty liked the game as well as he did, but he didn't mind. He'd found things interesting that other people thought weird, so it was no really strange thing. Jinli had shown up before they'd headed back to the base, and the three of them had sat around the hotel room until Heero'd called to demand where they were.

It had been all Wufei could do not to complain at Heero that he hadn't had anything to do at the base. He'd wanted to justify his actions—but could there have been anything less necessary?

"Oh, look," the man muttered sarcastically. "You're Chang Wufei. Did you know that?"

"Am I really?" Wufei returned in kind, looking back to the other man. "Why I do declare..."

The guy snorted and started typing.

The group of them had gone out to dinner, and then Duo and Quatre had left for the hospital. Lu, evidently, had been moved out of I.C.U., which Wufei was glad for, but he preferred not to hang around in hospitals when the only thing that'd cure the woman was time. He intended to go see her at lunch, if he got the chance, but...

The man pulled a card from the printer, typing again, then turned and pulled out a protector from behind him. He scanned the barcode on the thing, then slid the card into it. After a moment, he attached a clip to it then offered it to Wufei. It all had the look of long-practice, and Wufei wondered if the man _liked_ his job.

"Thanks," he muttered, moving aside as the man he was with got his own fingerprints scanned.

They were going into a section of the black-ops that Wufei liked to call opaque-ops. Most everyone else called it red-ops, but the notion made Wufei think of blood and assassinations. He didn't get much of a chance to put on rose-colored glasses, so he took what opportunities came his way.

"Scan...your card?" the guy asked him almost hesitantly. He wasn't someone Wufei knew, and for some reason, Wufei'd left the impression of being touchy behind himself when he and the others had left. That hadn't even been this base, but soldiers all over had heard the stories.

"Oh, crap," Wufei shook his head and ran the card under the scanner. The card itself had a barcode on it, and then the protector did as well. The combination was what his access was associated to, and unless that specific computer activated the protectors, they didn't work. The doors slid open, and Wufei moved in, looking the area over.

He'd only been to this base once before they'd left...and he tried not to think of that.

There was a wall of nearly-opaque glass in front of him. Behind it, he could see a few men moving around, and there was a low hum of both computers and people talking. The doors only allowed for one man to enter, so a moment later, they slid open again so the colonel escorting him could enter.

"Sorry," the man muttered quickly, dry washing his hands. "This way, please."

Wufei wondered if the man had been suspected. He seemed remarkably nervous to be in charge of organization.

"I recall hearing that you worked in red-ops before, Brigadier," the man added, looking back at him as they turned the corner...and the red-ops room appeared before them.

Shelves and containment units lined the walls, and freestanding shelves were arranged around the area to form cubicles. Men on laptops or computers filled those areas, and only a few were sitting.

The buzz of conversation, however, quieted remarkably fast when Wufei strode into the area. Men almost seemed to fall in line as he passed, offering salutes and avoiding his eyes.

Had he really been _that_ bad an ass? Or had the years worsened the tails?

It was hard to tell.

Wufei calmed his stride, smiling and nodding at the various men—whether or not he had been a dick the last time he'd gone through, he was being an ass now. His casual happiness made it seem much more like he was accepting grand praise and the men loved him.

"This way...uh...Brigadier Chang," the man leading him muttered quietly, starting toward the back of the building.

People called that the nothing, but he called it the pink.

Wufei wondered if eating breakfast with Matty had _really_ been such a great idea. He'd noticed that he and the boy tended to get wound up when they were alone together, and with that for a start to the day, he was starting to feel obnoxious.

They moved into another hall, and Wufei looked into the office of the man in charge. Jondan had been starting to stand, and on seeing Wufei, his backbone straightened.

Wufei kept walking, even though his escort had stopped.

"Uh...Brigadier..." the man started, hesitant.

"I know my way, Colonel," Wufei reassured him, starting for the back stairs.

He and Brigadier General Jondan didn't really get along—at least, the man annoyed him. He probably annoyed the man as well, considering that Wufei wasn't sure if he was _half_ the man's age. The man was worthy of respect, but it seemed to grate at him that he had to show _Wufei_ respect in kind.

Either that or they'd been enemies; Wufei'd never investigated that option.

"Chang," Jondan muttered, hurrying to catch up with an extended hand. "I was just going to meet you."

"Considering that Yuy, Winner, and Barton are waiting for my return," Wufei noted thoughtfully, "I'll have to beg a rush."

"Of course," the man muttered, looking back to the colonel who was tailing them. "You look well. Enjoy ruining everyone's day yesterday?"

Wufei laughed. "I didn't have anything to do with that," he noted. "I've only been awake two hours now," he added, glancing to his watch. "I haven't had time for the morning to catch up with me."

"Lucky you," the man muttered wryly.

"With what we're doing?" Wufei demanded skeptically, meeting his eyes. "If you hadn't been screened yesterday, you'd be one of the ones queuing up for the auditorium now. When it comes down to it, I'll have to help Yuy start coding the cards. I'm in for a very long day...and what I'm here for," he added quietly, meeting the man's eyes firmly, "does not make me any more pleased."

The man had the good grace to look away.

"When we compiled the data for our machines," he said in a low voice as he scanned his card at the entrance to the stairs, "when we performed the precision tests...when we allowed the engineers to analyze the machines...it wasn't so you could come along behind us and make _another_ gundam," he hissed those words quietly as they moved into a pink hall. According to Une and Lu...and Sally, the color was coral, peach, or salmon...but it looked pink to him, an orangey pink.

"With all due respect, Brigadier," the guy said quietly, still not meeting his eyes, "the only gundanium in the machine is in the core..."

"Bullshit," Wufei snapped back, which made the colonel flinch. "The machines weren't only called gundams because they were made from that metal. There's an entire layer of handling, internal systems, and _pilot_ training," he couldn't help but clench his teeth on the word, "that goes into those machines."

"With all due..."

"Speak your mind," Wufei spat, starting down the stairs.

"It's a precision instrument," the man snapped at him, meeting his eyes finally. "I'll give you that. It _is_ a precision instrument, and the reservoir of soldiers who _could_ pilot it is very slim...I'm not trying to be detrimental, but..."

"I don't think we'll agree on whatever you're about to say," Wufei noted coolly, studying his eyes. "If you take a moment to think, there's a _reason_ we destroyed our gundams."

The man swallowed and looked away again.

Wufei really wished Quatre'd accompanied him—he wanted a read on the man. He doubted it would do him an ounce of good in the end, but...

"It's...a left at the bottom," the colonel said quietly.

Wufei nodded at the man, taking the turn. The stairs let out onto another platform of metal-mesh. Below him, a truck was driving...and it made him realize something.

He hadn't been in _this_ pink-room more than the once. If he'd been there any other time, that mesh and view would have stayed with him.

He probably _had_ left a wake of dismay behind him—the last time he'd been down here, he'd been collecting Nataku with the sure knowledge that he was going to destroy her.

Wufei looked around the hanger slowly, then back toward the way he'd been directed. There was an MS in the spot, but it wasn't the object of their search.

"If you'll allow me?" Jondan offered, then started away. The colonel hesitated, and Wufei took the spot. Rank was a touchy thing, and touchier to those who were lower.

Wufei studied the MS skeptically, not sure what to make of the thing. It looked like a Taurus, but there was something about the shoulders and arms that seemed more like a Leo.

They should have made an Aquarius...it'd be kind of cool to have one that could fly, swim, or walk properly. With the right sort of lining, it could be made to keep the water out of the machine and the oil, grease, and coolant in. They could probably alter the feet to be a propeller, too...

Wonderful, now _he_ was making more MS...even if only in his head.

Jondan swiped his code in front of another reader, then pressed his thumb into the finger-printer. "This way," he said to Wufei, and went through the door.

Wonderful, even more security. If they went any further out, they'd be in space.

He swiped his own card, then pressed his thumb to the machine. It beeped at him, and he moved through the doorway.

And that was it.

Wufei moved to the edge of the railing, staring at the head of an Aries on the body of a Leo...and the weapon of...

Wufei gasped.

"What?" Jondan asked, looking around to him in confusion.

"That's that fucking _whip_," Wufei snapped back, stashing his key-card in his pants pocket as he strode out onto the platform that led to the machine itself. He was pulling off his jacket as he went, and he dropped his button-up on top of it before climbing up onto the railing.

"Um...Brigadier?" the colonel darted forward to grab his garments. "There's a lift...I mean, you could fall."

Wufei ignored that, landing on the shoulder. He clambered down the back of the machine, cursing to himself as he noticed six round discs tucked into the spine of the thing—the damn force-field generator from the Mercurius...that figured. And why not? It had the whip of Epyon. Maybe they'd decided to take it all the way and incorporate the generator of the Vayeate so it could have the damn blaster...

He jumped down onto the whip, not sure what to do since he was there. He'd been hoping he'd been mistaken, but that had been far too much to hope for.

"Well?" Jondan asked. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm going to accuse men of attempting to create a war," Wufei snapped back, moving back up the whip. He was on the thing, he may as well give it the once over.

. . . if the cloak was in the force-field generator...didn't that mean it could generate a cloak over anything?

In spite of himself, a thousand notions flitted through Wufei's head.

Wufei pulled himself back onto the shoulder, moving around to start clambering down the front.

"_Please_, Brigadier," the colonel pleaded. "The safety harness..."

"You've never fought in an MS, have you?" Wufei returned, looking up to him and Jondan with interest. They were on the lift, and about even with Wufei.

"No, sir," the man returned, "but..."

"Be still," Jondan snapped, giving him a look and glancing back at Wufei. "He knows what he's about."

That almost sounded like a compliment.

Wufei would have smirked if his stomach wasn't seething.

Une had led him to believe they'd only used the standard MS. Epyon's whip and the Mercurious' shields made the thing more than a damned standard.

He reached the lip of the cockpit entrance and used his foot to trigger the button, watching as the door fell slowly open. Normally, he'd have jumped directly into the thing when it was wide enough for him, but he wasn't exactly eager for this lovely chance.

"Chang?"

Wufei stopped, moving to the edge of the cockpit door to look at the ground level.

"You're Chang?" the man there demanded. "What are you doing, man?"

Jacking-off.

Wufei stared back at him a long moment, then turned and moved into the cockpit.

"Colonel Leard," Jondan muttered in greeting as the lift started to move again. "I hope you'll excuse us. The Brigadier has many things to do today."

"He hard of hearing?" the man asked with interest.

"Not in the slightest," Jondan returned.

Wufei sat in the seat, looking the controls over. The basic commands were universal, but learning how to use the weaponry was different.

Was it as fine-tuned as Nataku had been?

Wufei ran his hands over the controls, glad to be alone for that moment. There was a power in having control over the behemoth man-shaped machines. There was a strength in knowing exactly how to use the things.

There was a thud, and Wufei raised his eyes to look at a man who had to be three times his age. The man, though, had landed from above. For all his age, there was an air of energy about him. "I'm Colonel Leard," he noted. "This is my machine."

"This is an affront to human decency," Wufei returned, fingering a button he didn't recognize—most likely for the shields.

"I was told you pilots might think something like that...but with the situation as it is, this machine can hit earth and not be spotted."

"I understand," Wufei informed him quietly, narrowing his eyes. "I understand why it's necessary—I even understand why _I_ was picked to pilot it."

"That decision will be made by Une," the man noted quietly. "It will be either your comrades or Brigadier Peacecraft."

"Peacecraft wouldn't touch this," Wufei returned.

"That's for General Une..."

Wufei met the man's eyes.

"You're serious," the guy realized, dropping to sit on his rear. "You already know."

Wufei took a long slow breath, looking the cockpit over again. "I may not appreciate the need, but if you've really integrated an Aries to a Leo, I'll have to admire the skill."

The man considered him a long moment, then looked up again. "It needs a name."

"Name?" Wufei asked blankly.

The man nodded. "The gundams all had names," he noted. "Wing, Deathscythe...Heavyarms. It needs a name," he patted the thing almost affectionately as he studied it. "The gundams had names."

"The gundams were gods among men," Wufei said quietly, focusing back on the controls.

"What?" the man asked, focusing on him.

"The gundams were gods among men," Wufei repeated.

"This isn't gundanium," the man muttered, studying Wufei's face. "Only small parts."

"Like a demigod," Wufei noted, looking back to the screens.

"Demigod?" the man asked in amusement. "How suiting."

Wufei met his eyes again, blinking.

"Demigod," he repeated, rising to his feet to run his hands around the door. "It fits."

Wufei sank back in the seat, looking around the cockpit himself.

"Yes," the man muttered, "Demigod will do just fine."

- -

"What a day," Heero muttered tiredly, rubbing at his eyes as he looked the men over. The thirty space-hearts had been double-timed, beyond the entrances and judgment rings.

They'd found ten more men.

"It's not over yet," Quatre noted in amusement, looking around at the men still in the auditorium. "We'll get lunch at some point," he added, running a hand through his black hair. "Do you think this is working?"

"It's a lot easier to automatically re-code cards," Heero noted. "I just had to write up the protocol—and common soldiers aren't as high a priority as black-ops spies."

"Unless they're Trowa," Quatre noted, looking around to Heero. "What was he, but a common soldier?"

"He's a special deviation from normalcy," Heero retorted. "How else could he keep his appearance the same and infiltrate at the same time?"

"I think that had to do with the fact that they'd see Heavyarms, not him," Quatre reminded him. "Just keep the damn machine working so we can get the hell out of here."

"I can't make the machine work anymore than you can make someone talk," the man retorted.

Quatre flashed him a grin, then moved back from the room into the auditorium.

"What about me?" Trowa demanded, moving in after the guy. "I could barely hear you over all this rabble," he gestured behind himself with the hand that wasn't holding his phone. "Huh? No, I'm talking to Heero."

"Hey, Tim," Heero greeted. "What are you doing over here?"

"He says hey," Trowa noted, then moved to drop next to Heero. "I needed a break. I think we have five minutes before _that_ machine crashes again. I think you coded it wrong."

Heero gave Trowa a look—it wasn't a serious comment.

Trowa flashed him a grin, sliding down in his chair. "You see Wufei around anywhere?"

"Not since he came back this morning."

"He didn't say anything to you?" Trowa pressed.

"No," Heero agreed. "He's a little out of it, I think."

Trowa nodded. "What?" he added into the phone. "No, Wufei had some crap that he had to do this morning alone. When he got back from that, he was...he's all disconsolate or something..." he laughed. "Yeah, I know."

Heero tuned the man out. The focus of his friend had changed during the laughter, and that left him to stare around.

_What are you doing?_ he asked his boyfriend

_Huh?_ Matty returned the text.

_What are you doing?_ Heero repeated. _I get a break for another thirty seconds, answer fast_.

_LOL_, the guy returned. _I can see you, and you've been there for like, a whole minute_.

Heero raised his eyes to look across the area to an upper level. "Oh, there he is," he muttered, pointing.

Trowa turned to look as well.

_What?_ Wufei asked. He was sitting with Matty.

_We were just wondering where you were_, Heero shrugged, since he knew he was seen. _I'm bored. Come down here and pick another fight_.

_Unlike Trowa_, Wufei returned, a wicked grin crossing his face, _I'm not going to champion your boyfriend's honor_.

Heero guffawed at that, then controlled himself as Trowa gave him an interested look. He rolled his eyes for his friend's benefit.

_If you let him see that_, Wufei noted, _you'll regret it_.

Heero grinned more, then looked around. _Is Duo back yet?_

_No. He said something about staying a little longer and then getting food_.

Heero nodded at that.

_What?_ Matty asked—Heero could see him trying to grab Wufei's phone.

_Duo's still with Lu_, Heero explained quickly. _He's supposed to be getting us food_.

_I know you better than that, jackass_, he retorted. _That grin on both your faces suggests something_.

_And if we wanted you to know about it?_ Heero prompted.

_You'd tell_, Matty agreed irritably. _But if you want happy harmony in bed, you won't annoy me_.

_If you start threatening me with sex-control_, Heero noted, _I'll seduce you eight ways from Sunday and you won't know up from down by the end of it_.

Matty stopped moving, and Heero could almost see his eyes. _I'll keep that in mind...how big a threat should it be?_

Heero snickered at that, and decided to explore the extent of his boyfriend's...amusement.

- -

Une stared across the building as the last man wandered from the room, looking the auditorium over. All but the barest handful of soldiers had remained behind, and as the last man went, those followed him, laughing and talking together. They'd been dismissed before, but General Une couldn't be left with anyone questionable.

Heero sighed, moving across the room and dropping his jacket on a chair in the first row of seats, sitting himself in the second row as he studied her. Quatre moved up from the right, dropping down into the front row as Matty and Wufei moved along the row to sit with Heero. A moment later, Trowa came from the left to sit, all watching her.

"And just like that," she said quietly, staring off across the room, "they all fall down."

"Ashes, ashes," Heero agreed, running his hands through his hair. "Are we done yet?"

"You're not going to stay and help us try?" she muttered, starting to rub her face again. She knew he wouldn't. None of them would, Wufei wouldn't even be staying longer this time.

"Last time we were at trail," Trowa noted thoughtfully, "Duo started a fist-fight with the opposing counsel."

Une started giggling.

She loved these boys like they were her own sons...or maybe just nephews, but they could be complete and total pains in the ass.

"Hey!" Duo muttered, sweeping down a hall. "How did it go?"

"Twenty-seven arrested," Une returned. "Hundreds cleared...a day's work down the shit-hole...better than I expected."

Duo grinned at the group of them before moving around behind Une and starting to massage her shoulders and neck. "That's good, then...Lu wants us to get food and go eat in the room with her," he added to the rest, eyeing Quatre speculatively. "I told her I'd let you know, but no promises. She said if you decided not to, she was going to hunt you down and find a hot-iron."

"Ouch," Matty noted, blinking.

"Yeah, she's feisty like that," Duo agreed, casting him a wicked grin and looked back to Quatre.

Quatre's eyes narrowed, then he smirked very slightly.

"Don't say any of it," Wufei suggested with a sigh, rubbing his own face. "Whatever thoughts just occurred to both of you, don't say it out loud."

Quatre snickered.


	10. Chapter 10

**Epilogue**

"And he was all, 'but I've been here the whole time...'," Heero noted in amusement to Lucretzia as he sat in the chair beside her bed. "Like we weren't calling them up by rank. I was about to backhand him before another soldier interceded. I made Wufei do something more than entertain my boyfriend then..."

"It was such a _hard_ day," Wufei noted in mock dismay.

Lu grinned at him.

"I'm not...annoying, am I?" Matty asked, a perplexed frown on his face.

"Matty?" Wufei asked. "What did we do all day?"

The guy blinked at him.

"That's right," Wufei agreed. "We hung out doing absolutely nothing while the other four scurried around like rats on a sinking ship...and you're thinking there's sincerity in my saying I had a hard day?"

The guy grinned as he actually thought about that. He hadn't meant that Wufei's response bothered him—it was more that he tended to follow them around, and some people didn't appreciate that. He did have to admit, though, that Wufei almost seemed to look for _him_.

"You guys have _no_ idea," Wufei added quietly, setting his cup on the roll-around table. He ran his hands over his face and started shaking his head.

"What?" Lu asked, giving him a concerned look.

"What's wrong?" Zechs asked—he was sitting on the trundle-bed that was against the wall. "You look more stressed than you should."

Wufei ran his hands through his hair.

"Well?" Heero asked, considering the man.

"It's...it has the damn whip of Epyon," he returned.

Heero closed his eyes.

Zechs stared at him in evident confusion a long moment, then looked around to Lu.

"And the shield-generator of Mercurious."

Duo's hands moved to his face.

"They have Deathscythe's cloak in it."

Trowa dropped his head back, staring at the ceiling.

"And he calls it Demigod," Wufei finished, staring at the wheels of the bed. "I named it Demigod."

"Is it a gundam?" Lu muttered, staring at his face intently.

"Only parts," Wufei returned, smiling sadly at her. "The gundams were gods among men...and it's only part gundam."

"Apt name," Quatre said quietly, looking toward the window. "What's it made of?"

"An Aries and a Leo," he noted in amusement. "They have some mixture of a Taurus and a Leo in there, too...how many bases do you suppose are making similar things?"

"Probably most," Heero said quietly.

"I don't understand," Lu muttered, looking them all over. "Who has that? Why do you know about it?"

"There were four guys in black-ops with loyalty to Marsh," Wufei noted, raising his eyes to look at her. "Four guys in black-ops...and two of them had access to the pink."

They all stared at him.

"Err...the nothing," he corrected himself, shaking his head. "Out of the guys taken from 27, there were more than enough who had black-ops passes...and from the ones that aren't accounted for?" Wufei looked to Heero a long moment, then met Lucretzia's eyes again. "They broke through the barricade, scrambled the satellites...and they're on earth."

She looked away from him, then across to Zechs.

Zechs was staring at the bed.

"There have been some...unconfirmed downloads," Heero added quietly, rising to his feet. "Before I went in and recoded...the information related to the special research," he indicated Wufei as he started to pace. "They have some of the information—and most of it only needs parts of other MS. During the wars, every colony was equipped with MS repair stations...so they had all they needed. They had the whole stock of the damn colony to tear up, too...and then some," he looked around to Lu.

"So you think...it's another revolution?" she asked quietly.

"I think," Duo noted, "that it's a small-time coup."

"I think it's dangerous," Wufei noted, looking between the pair of them. "Marsh shouldn't have the resources that Barton did...but he _is_ on earth, and we don't know _where_ on earth. Enough of the old bases were left stripped and ignored that there are...hundreds...of places," he looked around to his friends.

It was part of one of those old bases that they had the gundams hidden in.

"And in any one of those bases," Heero noted, "they could have been stock-piling weaponry...I just want to let you lot know that I'm _not_ looking forward to this."

"So...what happens now?" Zechs muttered, looking between them.

"We go home," Wufei returned, staring across the room. "We go home...and get Deathscythe."

"Deathscythe?" Zechs demanded, turning his head to look at Duo. "What are you talking about?"

"The god of death had a baby?" Duo muttered, looking to Wufei with interest.

"You hurt me," Heero informed them both, snorting slightly.

"You guys destroyed the gundams," Matty noted quietly. "I saw the video."

The former pilots looked away.

"No, you _did_," Lu protested, the heart-monitor starting to beep faster. "You did and recorded it and..."

"Way to break the secret," Trowa muttered dryly.

"How could you have not told me?" Lucretzia breathed, staring at Duo.

Duo stretched his neck and refused to look at her.

Zechs considered Duo a long moment, then looked around to the woman. He rose, then, and moved across the room to stand near Duo.

Duo shifted back slightly, eyeing him warily—more than one of their fights had started similarly enough.

Zechs offered his hand, then took Duo's as he offered his hesitantly. "I owe you more than I give you," he noted quietly. "And my pettiness was cold. I'm sorry."

Duo shook the hand, still eyeing the man warily. "I suppose the feeling is mutual."

Zechs snorted—that hadn't been an apology, that had been the acceptance of his. There was a slight relief in that, though. He'd never really trusted Duo with his fianc because he'd never truly believed Duo'd given up hope. Their fighting and pissing contests were fun enough, and usually when the shit deepened enough, he came away from them feeling less stressed...with the way Duo'd offered his response, it didn't have to end just because _he'd_ stopped being an idiot.

"I _saw_ the footage of the gundams blowing up," Matty protested, shifting forward where he sat. Alarm tinged his tone, and there was almost a squeak to the words.

Heero sighed, resting a finger across his lips as he met eyes with the teen.

"I'm just..." Matty started.

"Quietly," Duo noted, moving around Zechs and Heero both to squat in front of the young man and study his eyes. "Just quietly."

"But..." Matty shifted where he sat. "If they aren't destroyed then they can be used again..._you_ can be used again!"

"Quietly," Duo repeated in a near whisper, gathering Matty's hands in his own as he studied Matty's eyes. "No one _but_ us know where they are."

"You said home," Matty whispered back. "You said..."

"They aren't in LA," Duo reassured him. "I know _where_ in LA I'll store Deathscythe, but..."

"The kid has a point," Zechs said quietly, looking around the room. "We _saw_ the footage."

"You of all people," Lu noted, "know how footage can be altered if it's not live."

He nodded, giving her a brief look.

"Altered?" Matty repeated, looking back to Duo. "What does she mean?"

"Shenlong was destroyed," Wufei said quietly. "Shenlong _is_ destroyed." His gaze shifted to the window.

"Please tell me Wing is gone," Zechs muttered, rounding on Heero.

"Wing has absolutely no power left in him," Heero returned quietly.

"Him?" Matty asked blankly.

Heero laughed coldly, looking back to the guy. "Wing...isn't entirely...inanimate," he noted. "Wing..."

"It has an artificial intelligence system in it," Quatre spoke up. "A system that can learn, and did learn...and can cause...disturbing...side effects."

"Side effects," Duo noted dryly, thinking back to his experience before shaking his head. "You call that side-effects?"

"It's lovely hallucinations," Trowa noted, shifting forward where he sat. "Screws with your head...he's the only one who can handle it," he gestured at Heero. "And I don't even know if he _could_ anymore."

"I'm not trying," Heero retorted, looking them all over. "Wing is going to stay dead from here to eternia."

"Or...something," Trowa agreed. "Tell him about Sandrock," he suggested to Quatre.

Quatre gave him a level look, but Matty looked back to him in almost concern. "Sandrock has a learning system in it, too," he noted. "Not so advanced as Wing," he gestured with his head at Heero. "But it did something once that touched me...in the head."

Trowa guffawed.

Quatre flashed him a brief smile, running his hands through his hair. "When we were trying to get back to space," he added, thinking, "the port we were using...well," he smiled at the boy briefly. "Long story short, I was holding the base as best I could, but running out of time and opportunities. Sandrock...ejected...me."

Matty tilted his head slightly.

"At the time," Quatre added, "it hadn't occurred to me just how _much_ the machine could think...but it self-destructed behind me. _It_ ejected _me_ after I hit the button."

Matty blinked, then tilted his head.

"It...left enough pieces behind to be rebuilt," Quatre admitted, looking around the room nervously. He knew he wasn't the only one who preferred not to think of that time period...and he himself specifically didn't like what followed.

Wing should never have been built.

"I thought you started in a different machine," Matty muttered, looking up to Heero with a slight frown on his face.

"I did," Heero agreed, moving to sit next to him again...and use his foot to knock Duo onto his ass since the guy was still holding Matty's hands. "It...died."

"It," Matty noted, raising an eyebrow.

"Wing Gundam was...a MS. Wing Zero...is...something else."

"And so very dead that if it turns back on I'll piss myself," Duo agreed, picking himself up and kicking at Heero's shin. "Wing Gundam..." Duo thought a moment. "Wing Gundam sort of disappeared after Epyon took the field."

"I left it there," Heero reminded him. "It was probably gathered up and dismantled."

Duo nodded, then turned to look at Zechs and Lu. "Trowa's refused the use of Heavyarms. Wing and Sandrock need to stay dead...and Altron...Shenlong...Nataku," he gave Wufei a look. "Nataku was..."

"Nataku is no more," Wufei supplied. Nataku was no more like his wife was no more.

Yet another thought he didn't want.

"Out of the four...three are refused."

"You're going to bring your gundam out?" Lu asked, staring into his eyes. "Duo..."

He looked away from her. "Wufei can't do it alone."

Zechs, who'd had his mouth open, turned to look at Wufei.

"Trowa refuses...and I suppose Heero or Quatre might be compelled...but they don't want their machines used. I think they might be better to have on the ground anyway—me and Duo, we can do what needs doing."

"I didn't say I wouldn't help," Trowa said quietly, looking up to Wufei. "I never said I wouldn't help."

"But yes," Wufei muttered. "Duo is going to fight...with me."

Lucretzia looked away.

"You fight," Duo snapped at her. "Look where that got you! How much worse will it be for me? I'll be on _earth_."

"I'm not arguing with you," she snapped back, still not looking at him.

"I'm going back to the hotel," Duo snapped to the others, glaring at Zechs in particular for a few moments, then starting for the door.

"I'll...come with you," Zechs noted, rising to his feet. He was boiling inside, but the tone sounded casual enough.

The nod of Duo's head confirmed it.

Duo knew his comments had triggered the fight. On top of that, there'd been all sorts of issue around them going off alone together after they'd "saved" Zechs from his imprisonment.

"You will do _no_ such thing," Quatre spoke up before the men could reach the door. His arms were crossed as the pair stopped and looked back at him.

"Zechs is hardly bi," Lu noted sardonically.

The look he gave her was daggers as he stopped with Zechs and pointed back inside the room.

"Quatre..." Duo started.

"You're not going to fight him," Quatre snapped back.

Lu wasn't the only one who started at his tone—and probably the realization.

"We aren't going to fight!" Duo retorted. It was obvious from what Quatre could feel that the lie was not intended for him. It was intended for the rest of the room.

"_I'll_ come with you," Quatre retorted, sliding by Zechs. He moved across the room to take Lu's hand in his, then lean forward and kiss her forehead. "I'll come back before we leave, alright?"

She nodded.

He smiled briefly at her, then turned to glower at Zechs again.

"We wouldn't have _hurt_ each other," Zechs protested as they started for the door. "When have we ever done more than rip each other up?"

"I'll see you before we leave," Quatre retorted, giving the man a look.

Zechs hmphed at him, then turned back to the room again.

"You were really going to fight him?" Lu demanded of him in exasperation. "After apologizing?"

"He's too easy to get pissed at," Zechs retorted, moving to sit on the trundle bed again. "You _know_ that."

"And then some," Wufei noted dryly. "I'd go with them, but I think Quatre has his mind on alone time."

"They really are lovers?" Lu asked, looking from him to Heero. "Really?"

"Quatre's still a virgin," Matty noted in amusement. "_Why_ do I know that?"

Lu started giggling.

"You're just that special," Heero muttered, patting Matty's leg, then pulling it slightly to him so his arm rested around it and Matty was sunk lower on the couch. Matty snorted, shaking himself free, then moved to climb into Heero's lap.

"I want to be held," Lu protested at Zechs.

"You're like...tied to that bed," Zechs retorted. "If you can figure out how to get me in there without a nurse, I'll do it...but..."

She snickered at him, then looked around to Wufei.

"Hm?" he asked, rising and moving across the room...to sit at the foot of the bed. Trowa tsked, then moved in as well himself.

"You will be careful, won't you?" she asked quietly. "You'll remember it's not made of gundanium?"

"With Mercurious' shields," he returned, "I doubt I'll have to bother."

She leveled him with a dirty look.

He snickered, then started to pet her shin. "Jinli and I are going to visit some of the others this summer...the other guys I grew up with."

She blinked at him. It took her a minute to understand what he meant—he had plans for his future, he had no intentions of dying.

"It should be fun," he noted after a moment, looking around to Trowa and Heero. "And I'll go all over this damn cluster."

Trowa rested a hand on his shoulder, wondering if he should point out he'd only wanted his friend to go to the memorial. He decided against it though, and settled for shoving.

It was nice to hear Lu start giggling, even if he had to dart damn fast to get out of arm's reach. The look Zechs gave him was funny, too...and he had to admit, Matty giggling didn't hurt, either.

- -

"They're fucking nuts," Qingfu hissed to Jaden as the group of them moved into a private airplane. "Are they seriously going to try and kill those pilots?"

"I haven't been able to talk them out of it yet," Jaden returned, looking around nervously. Ranger and Rabid disappeared into the machine. "I've been trying."

"They will eat them like _dog_ meat," Qingfu protested. "And _us_, if we're caught."

"Then stay here," Jaden retorted, mounting the stairs. "Stay in China and find yourself a bluff to jump off of."

Qingfu grinned briefly at that, then gave chase. "I'm not leaving _you_ to the dogs."

"Oh sweet lover," Jaden retorted sarcastically, but grinned at his friend. He and Qingfu hadn't really been friends at first, but as time went on, they'd realized they were the only truly sane ones with any authority in Rabid's group. They hadn't opened their friendship until they'd ended up in China, though.

"Sweet lover, indeed," Qingfu retorted. "Ranger might indulge those fantasies of yours, but _I_ am not interested."

"Am I really that ugly?" Jaden protested good-naturedly at him.

Qingfu looked him over from head to foot, then nodded. "Yes. Yes you are."

They both laughed...but that stopped when they saw Ranger and Rabid looking back at them with interest.

"You're no peach yourself," Jaden hissed to the other, then moved out of arm's reach. "If we're going to go through with this psychotic plot," he added, "let's get it over with so we can feed the vultures and ravens...there are still wild ravens, aren't there?" he added to Qingfu.

"They're considered pests at some places," Qingfu agreed. "I don't remember if Los Angeles was one of them, though."

"You two are stupid," Ranger noted, giving them both skeptical looks. "Why the hell are you worried about animals?"

"I don't know if you remember or not, you've been on earth so long," Jaden dropped into his chair. "But in the colonies...the only wild animals are mice, rats, cats, or dogs. The notion of seeing more birds..." he looked out the window, searching the sky. "I want to see more birds."

"It might be fun," Qingfu noted, "to go to one of those aquariums, too. You know? _See_ a whale? The fuckers are supposed to be huge," he spread his arms as wide as they would go.

"Joy," Rab noted sardonically to Ranger, "sightseeing. Colony tourists..."

Jaden and Qingfu looked at him levelly, then looked to each other again and settled back.

It was going to be a long flight in that company...and Jaden knew it would be twice as long before things were over.

Not for the first time, he wished he'd never gotten involved with Marshal Gerrange.

The man was going to get him killed.

- -

"So come down to earth with me," Wufei muttered, following after Jinli. "I can give you the rent money and shit—but if you just come move in with us..."

"That second apartment you mention only has like...five rooms, doesn't it?"

"It's like six...but one is a glorified closet. You can have that one."

"_That_ is an attractive offer," the man retorted.

Wufei hesitated a moment, then shrugged and darted after his friend. "Okay, you can have the one I claimed for myself."

Jinli turned and gave him a look.

Wufei pursed his lips, looking away and shrugging.

"Why is it that easy for you to say?"

"What?"

"Just telling me to move in like that...how can it be _that_ easy?"

"Because we have the room?" Wufei suggested, not sure what the man was on about.

"You haven't even talked to the others about this," the man protested.

"Trowa demanded why I hadn't already talked to you about it," Wufei protested.

It'd been an interesting morning. He'd figured the man would balk, and had been trying to think of how to offer the space. Heero'd asked him in confusion if he'd told Jin to move in with them, but he and Matty had been running around packing. Duo'd come in and asked when Jin was going to be moving in, and when Wufei had noted he hadn't offered yet, Duo'd given him a confused look. Quatre'd reminded Wufei that they knew Jinli was important. Quatre'd started yammering on about some childhood friend he'd had, and somehow that had flown into his sister being pregnant, and he hadn't talked to her in forever, he needed to. Duo'd flashed him a grin, then followed after the former-blond with the admonition to _tell_ Jin he was welcome. It hadn't been long after that at all that Trowa'd come to the door with his arms crossed and just stared at Wufei.

The conversation had been wordless, but Trowa'd _still_ been demanding why Wufei hadn't done it.

Jin gave him a look.

"They were all starting to make plans," he added. "Figuring out how to get you a job and around town before you got yourself a car."

Jinli blinked at him.

"My friends are nothing, if not loyal," Wufei noted with a slight smile. "If you want to live on earth, we can help you get there, and then you can get yourself set up whatever way you please."

"I'm going to have a hard enough time with our summer plans as it is," the man said quietly.

"I can afford it," Wufei noted. "And you can pay me back if you feel you _really_ must."

The man stared at him.

"The thing is, though," he muttered, "that I'm not...on the flight home with them."

"So I can just come with you," Jinli muttered, blinking more at him. "If I decide to do it."

"No," Wufei returned, "I'm on...a military flight. The only people who can take it are ranked officers." Or gundam pilots taking a MS back to earth.

"Oh," the man blinked.

The wonderful thing about Deathscythe's cloak was that it made the machine invisible for all electronic purposes. Anyone who saw it wouldn't be able to get a picture of it...no cameras, even high-speed ones, could get a picture of it.

He certainly hoped that thermal imaging things didn't work, he didn't remember the full stats on the stupid cloak—it did overheat after a time, though.

"You can go without them," Wufei added, "but we all have to run across earth for a few days, and I was thinking if you went down, you could hang out with Matt."

"You want me to babysit?" the man asked dryly.

Wufei gave him a very level look.

"All right, okay," the man muttered, shifting back. "I'll think about it...I'll let you know."

"I don't have a lot of time," Wufei muttered, starting away backward. "My stuff is going with my friends, and as soon as I'm done here, I'm heading back to base. I won't have my phone available until...until I'm home."

The man stared at him.

"So ten minutes or two days, you make up your mind." He smiled at the man, then turned and started down the hall. Jinli had met up with them in the hospital, and the others would be finishing up their goodbyes now. He should have stayed in the room, since they were all leaving in moments, but he hadn't been able to say more than goodbye before Jin had started away.

"Well?" Trowa asked quietly.

"He didn't give me an answer," Wufei returned dryly. "One of you can poke at him after I go off. I have to go," he added, moving forward to pull Lu into a hug. "Get better," he ordered the woman, petting her hair. "Next time I see you, you better have your feet under you."

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, studying his eyes. "_You_ be careful," she said quietly. "_You_ are the one I'm worried about...you and Duo," she looked to the other pilot.

"We're the last ones you should worry about," Duo retorted, kicking Wufei's rear as he moved by to offer a hand to Zechs.

"You upset my woman," Zechs started.

"I won't upset your wife," Wufei retorted, shaking the man's hand and grinning at him. "Don't worry...your wife won't have her heart broken by me."

"We aren't married...yet," Lu noted.

"Yes you are," Wufei informed her with a grin, starting for the door. "Just admit it already."

"But..." she started.

He winked at her, and darted out the door.

He was running late as it was.

- -

A chill wind raced along the cliff-side, and Duo wrapped his arms around himself as best he could. It was strange to think of a cold wind in Peru, but then, maybe the wind hadn't been cold.

He stared down at the rocks below them...at the ocean waves breaking against the stone.

"No time like the present," Heero noted quietly, yanking hard on the rope he had hooked around a rock. "I'll go get the lights," he added...and dropped into the hole.

Duo looked off over the edge of the cliff as he heard his friend land below them—on metal.

"I never really wanted to see this place again," Quatre noted quietly. He was standing at the cliff-side itself, staring across the ocean. His position looked casual enough, but the harness around his waist and through his legs looked strange.

After the wars had subsided, the realization had been made that having multiple bases put nations in mind of having soldiers. Soldiers were used to keep the peace, or in war. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bases around the world had been destroyed, creating huge sinkholes where they'd burrowed into land, or being cleared for new developments. Very few of those bases were properly remembered, but this one...there'd been a battle there at one point, and many men had died. Locals had been heard to claim it was a haunted area, and there were no people living within miles of it.

Haunted or no, the fact remained that the only access port was the hole in the ground Heero'd dropped into. There was an internal generator for lights, and the door—the huge hidden doors. The cliff-side was...not entirely real. The creators had sheared off the cliff-side, and attached that to giant swinging doors. Those doors would only open when the power was on and the button was hit.

No one on the earth but the five pilots themselves knew where it was or what was in it...but Oz had been O.C.D., and many of their bases had the same sort of look. There was a similar hangar near LA...and at this point—Duo glanced at his watch. At this point, Wufei should be securing Demigod in that hangar.

"Did you ever _really_ believe we'd be having a quiet life right now?" Quatre muttered, turning to look at him.

Duo gave him a look in return, moving to make sure their ropes were secure. He'd thought he'd be dead by seventeen, and every day after that was a new adventure.

"Me neither," Quatre returned, moving to sit at the edge of the hole and dangle his legs in it. "I certainly never thought I'd be an uncle."

"I wonder if I have any blood-kin," Duo muttered, sitting himself. "That'd be weird to think of like...a nephew running around somewhere."

"Another you?" Quatre gave him a look. "That's scary."

"Hahaha," Duo retorted, hearing a loud click below. He sighed, watching the hole for light—Heero would have searched the area for intruders before going to the generator. "I...I hate that this is necessary," he muttered.

"We all do," Quatre reassured him. "But...if it has to happen, I'd rather deal with it, wouldn't you?"

"No," Duo lied, meeting his eyes. "I think we should assassinate Marshal and be done with it."

"Assassination," Quatre spat to the side. "Think about _Heero_. People thought assassinating the first Heero Yuy would put an end to things—and that brought what?"

"We aren't tyrants," Duo muttered bitterly.

"Aren't we?" Quatre returned with interest, studying his face. "What did we just do in that base? We arbitrarily reset an entire system without so much as asking permission or getting a consensus. We took over and recreated everything that had been working fine before."

"If it had been working fine," Duo retorted, not liking the symmetry, "then we wouldn't have had to reset it."

"And what about that is different, really, then what happened to the colonies? People thought they were working fine and they were all segregated from each other. Oz took over everything and...tried to remake it how they wanted it."

"You're not a pacifist, don't play at one," Duo retorted bitterly, looking away as he pulled the gloves he was wearing down more on his fingers.

"I'm just playing the devil's advocate," Quatre noted in amusement, also fiddling with his gloves. "When _we_ start thinking of the easy way out, then we step on our own feet. Why _didn't_ we destroy the gundams, Duo?"

Duo sighed, and the lights switched on from below.

"Time is," Quatre muttered, and slid into the hole.

Duo stared up at the sky a long moment, then dropped down himself. The moment of freefall jerked his stomach, and it took him a moment to remember he _had_ the gloves on. He caught the rope in both hands, and it jerked him hard. A moment later, he had ahold of the lever-end, and started letting himself down again—just controlled.

Quatre had landed on the metal platform, and had ahold of the rope for Heero's harness, staring deeper into the confines of the base.

Duo landed, studying his boyfriend a moment before focusing himself.

Heavyarms was the nearest of the four, collapsed in its stand so it looked almost to be kneeling...on the left, Sandrock was sitting, almost sprawled backwards...in shadow. Wing Zero was also there, toppled sideways so the light didn't reflect off its face...and there was Deathscythe, arm caught on the platform that led out to it, nearly on its knees.

It seemed an apt vision...the gundams kneeling.

The light was behind Deathscythe, and the new position seemed to give it a halo of gold.

Quatre gagged.

Duo unhooked the harness, moving forward to the edge of the platform. "The god of death silhouetted in holy raiment," he muttered quietly.

Quatre gagged again, trying to tear his eyes away...from his position, it almost seemed that Heavyarms was kneeling to Duo, and Sandrock was falling away. Wing Zero was far away and aloof...and that light, that raiment that silhouetted Deathscythe...it silhouetted Duo, too.

**_End_**


End file.
